Towards a History of Viennese Chamber Music in the Early Classical Period

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American Musicological Society

Towards a History of Viennese Chamber Music in the Early Classical PeriodAuthor(s): James WebsterSource: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1974), pp. 212-247Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/830559

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Towards a History of Viennese Chamber Musicin the Early Classical Period*

By JAMES WEBSTER

ALTHOUGH THE HISTORY f Viennese chamber music in the "transitional"

period 174o-8o still remains to be written, its outlines are now

beginning to emerge.1 Those outlines require us torevise a number of

seemingly well-established concepts, including the most common titleencountered, Divertimento, and the most common ostensible scoring-designation, Basso. The title Divertimento did not designate a genre;works so titled did not effect a transition from the Baroque suite tothe Classical symphony, nor were they "links" between older types ofchamber music and the string quartet.2 Indeed, they were not necessarily"light" music in any sense. In this repertory the title Divertimento ap-peared more often than any other, and it transmitted by far the greatestvariety of scorings and styles.: The only restriction on its use was thatsuch works were almost always soloistic. The term Basso did not desig-nate the double-bass, nor-as an extension of that notion-did its use

imply orchestral scoring. Basso meant simply "the bass part"; it was

* A fuller version of this material is found in James Webster, "The Bass Part inHaydn's Early String Quartets and in Austrian Chamber Music, 1750-1780" (Ph.D.diss., Princeton University, 1973), Chaps. i-2.1 In part because of the wealth of information to be found in Ursula Lehmann,Deutsches und italienisches Wesen in der Vorgeschichte des klassischen Streich-quartetts (Wiirzburg, 1939); Ruth Halle Rowen, Early Chamber Music (New York,1949); Eve R. Meyer, "Florian Gassmann and the Viennese Divertimento" (Ph.D.diss., Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1963), summarized in "The Viennese Divertimento,"Music Review, XXIX (1968), 165-71I; Gayle Allen Henrotte, "The EnsembleDivertimento in Pre-Classic Vienna" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of North Carolina, 1967);Warren Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato in der Kammermusik des Rokoko und derKlassik (Tutzing, 10966); Ludwig Finscher, "Das klassische Streichquartett und seineGrundlegung durch Joseph Haydn" (Habilitationsschrift, Univ. of the Saar, [1967]),summarized n the article "Streichquartett," MGG, Vol. XII, cols. 1560-64); HubertUnverricht, Geschichte des Streichtrios (Tutzing, 1969).

2 Such views are stated by Adolf Sandberger, "Zur Geschichte des HaydnschenStreichquartetts," n Ausgewahlte Aufsdtze zur Musikgeschichte, I (Munich, 1922),228-38; Oliver Strunk, "Haydn's Divertimenti for Baryton, Viola, and Bass," TheMusical Quarterly, XVIII (1932), 228; Rowen, Early Chamber Music, pp. 140-45;Giinxter Hausswald, "Der Divertimento-Begriff bei Georg Christoph Wagenseil,"Archiv fiir Musikwissenschaft, IX (1952), 45-50; H. C. Robbins Landon, The Sym-phonies of Joseph Haydn (London, 1955), pp. 176-91; Meyer, "Divertimento,"pp. 167, 169-70; Alfred Einstein, Mozart: His Character, His Work (New York,1945), p. 172. But none of the works cited in fn. i is completely free from them.

3This point is well stated (in spite of occasional inaccuracies) in Meyer,"Divertimento."



VIENNESE CHAMBER MUSIC IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 213

compatible with any scoring, soloistic or orchestral; and indeed such"bass parts" most commonly were composed for and performed by solocello. On the other hand, a solo double-bass frequently incorporatedthe bass part.4

In order to establish hese results, t will be necessary o differentiatethe terminological and the substantive aspects of the evidence.5 For

example, Haydn's symphonies constitute a single genre, but they appearunder the most heterogeneous collection of titles: Sinfonia, Overture(New Grand Overture), Partita, Notturno, Scherzando, Divertimento,Concertino, Cassation, and so forth.6 But the chamber music is more

problematic in this respect. In the i9th century, Haydn's biographer

Pohl implied that the various titles in the sources for Haydn's earlyquartets corresponded to substantive musical distinctions. Around 1900,

Sandberger escalated this attack by claiming: "it is well known that

Haydn himself named [Haydn benannte bekanntlich selbst] his first

quartets in various ways; i.e., Quadri, Cassations, Divertimenti, Not-turni. . . ."7 Now Sandberger took the title Quadro from a group of

eight quartets cited in Breitkopf's thematic catalogue of 1765. And since

Breitkopf used the title Cassatio for another group of six works, includingthree early quartets, Sandberger concluded that Haydn's early quartetscomprised two different groups: ". . . the latter three genres [Diverti-mento, Notturno, Cassation] are the legitimate heirs of the formerorchestra suite; but the Quadro boasts of different parentage. Thus fromthe beginning our investigation falls into two parts."8 But there is noevidence of a business or personal relationship between Haydn (inVienna) and Breitkopf (in Leipzig). Furthermore, Breitkopf cited the

quintet Hob. II:2 as a quartet and included the spurious quartet Hob.

III:F4. Finally, there are no distinctions of substance between these

two groups of quartets. For all of these reasons, Breitkopf's varied titlesimply nothing about the antecedents of Haydn's quartets; and since

4These points regarding Basso and the double-bass are discussed in Carl Bair'sessential study, "Zum Begriff des 'Basso' in Mozarts Serenaden," Mozart-Jahrbuch,1960-61, pp. 133-55.5 See Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht, Studien zur nmsikalischen Terminologie (Mainz,1955), pp. 1 i-i7; for this repertory cf. Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, p. 91.

6 Jens Peter Larsen, Die Haydn-Oberlieferung (Copenhagen, 1939), pp. 260-70;Landon, Symphonies, p. 22 and Appendix I.

7C. F. Pohl, Joseph Haydn, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1878-82), I, 331; Sandberger, "Streich-

quartett," pp. 228-29. For Haydn's terminology, see Larsen, Die Haydn-Uberlieferung,pp. 223-25; Haydn's so-called Entwurf-Katalog [EK], available in Larsen's DreiHaydn-Kataloge in Faksimile (Copenhagen, '941), here, EK, pp. 3-5; Joseph Haydn:Werke, edited by the Joseph Haydn-Institut (Cologne) under the direction of GeorgFeder (Munich-Duisberg, 1958-), Series XII, Vol. i [hereafter: JHW XII/11, p. viii.

8 P. 229. See The Breitkopf Thematic Catalogue, ed. Barry S. Brook (New York,1966), pp. 140, I53. The eight Quadri appear as Hob. III: 1,7,2,6,3, 11:6, III:F4,4 inAnthony van Hoboken, Joseph Haydn: Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeich-nis, 2 vols. (Mainz, i957-7');

the six Cassatione as Hob. III:8,io, II:22,21,2, III:1z2.The quartet Hob. III:F4 is spurious; cf. Landon, Symphonies, p. 816, No. 97.



2 I4 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Haydn's terminology is known, there is no reason to pay attention to

Breitkopf's.There is another ground for suspicion. The title Quadro designated

the "quartet sonata" (analogous to the trio sonata) in Protestant Ger-many.9 But many musical practices which can be documented elsewheredid not apply to i8th-century Austria, which was remarkably isolatedfrom North and West European musical culture. The disseminationof music from one region to another took place through the physicaldistribution of manuscripts and printed editions, and the travels of themusicians themselves.10 But there was no regular publication of music

anywhere in the Austrian-Bohemian cultural region before 1778. Until

that date, and in many cases even afterwards, the primary means ofdistribution was manuscript copies." More to the point, there was notradition whatever of printing ensemble music before 1780. Of the

seventy-nine volumes containing or related to music printed in Viennabetween 17oo00 and 1778, only twenty-two are post-1740 editions ofinstrumental music. Of these, only four are ensemble music without

keyboard; only one, a set of trios by Paolo Bonaga, is for as many asthree parts (Artaria's first publication, 1778); and only one, a set oftwelve sonatas for violin and bass by Porpora, antedates 1777 (Bernardi,

1754).12 Music from other regions was imported and sold by Viennesebooksellers in negligible quantities at best.13 And as we shall see, thetitle Quadro was almost nonexistent in Vienna before 178o anyhow.

The "Mannheim School" was well represented in Paris, for example,both by the emigration of composers and by publication,14 but it hadno comparable exposure in Vienna. Mannheim's alleged importance forthe development of the Classical style in Vienna, recently criticized on

grounds of principle, thus also lacks a persuasive documentary basis.15

The same fate awaits claims made on behalf of Sammartini or C. P. E.Bach as influences on Haydn's early quartets. Haydn's possible (butnot documented) exposure to Sammartini's symphonies and Bach's key-

9See Sandberger, "Streichquartett," pp. 239-51; Rowen, Early Chamber Music,

PP. 79, 85-90; Finscher, Das klassiscbe Streichquartett, pp. 99-Io6.10 William S. Newman, The Sonata in the Classic Era, 2d ed. (New York, 1971),

PP. 59-74.11 Alexander Weinmann, Wiener Musikverleger und Musikalienhandler von

Mozarts Zeit bis gegen i86o (Vienna, 1956), pp. 7, 14; Hannelore Gericke, DerWiener Musikalienhandel von 17oo bis 1778 (Graz, 1960).

12These assertions are deductions from Gericke, Musikalienhandel, pp. 113-31,

especially Nos. 5, 6, 14, 48. Cf. Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, p. 79.13 Gericke, Musikalienhandel, pp. 13-14, 133.14 Newman, Classic Sonata, pp. 6o-6 i, 606-7.15 Larsen, "Zur Bedeutung der 'Mannheimer Schule,'" in Festschrift Karl Gustav

Fellerer zum sechzigsten Geburtstag . . . (Regensburg, 1962), pp. 303-9; Finscher,Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. 91-98. Only one print transmitting the Mannheim

repertory can be shown to have been sold in Vienna (Gericke, p. 28), and even

manuscript sources are very sparse (cf. Eugene K. Wolf, "The Symphonies of JohannStamitz. . ." [Ph.D diss., New York Univ., 1972 , pp. 243-46).



VIENNESE CHAMBER MUSIC IN THE CLASSICAL ERIOD 215

board music hardly justifies calling these repertories "influences" onHaydn's first quartet-divertimenti, so different in style and social func-tion.16 One need only note the virtual absence of ensemble music withoutkeyboard from Bach's production-apparently he did not write a singleQuadro in four real parts-and the outrage with which North Germancritical opinion greeted Haydn's early quartets.17

After the death of Charles VI in 1740 Vienna enjoyed little immigra-tion from independent cultural regions.18 Every important composer ofViennese chamber music betwen 1750 and 1780 was born and trainedin Vienna itself or its "own" provinces: Albrechtsberger, Aspelmayr,Dittersdorf, Fr. X. Du'ek, Gassmann, oseph Haydn, Leopold Hofmann,

Holzbauer,19 Kofeluch, J. C. Mann, Myslivecek, Ordofiez, Pichl, Pleyel,Vanhal, and Wagenseil. It is in the repertory of these composers thatthe historical context of Haydn's early chamber music must be sought.And no matter how widely a given musical practice-say, a keyboardcontinuo-may have flouished elsewhere, its use in Vienna cannot beassumed unless independent documentation is at hand.

The Title "Divertimento" and the Rise of Classical Chamber Music

Thekey

to thehistory

ofi8th-century

Viennese chamber musicis the title Divertimento.20 The literature has not established plausibledistinctions among the various hypothetical genres: divertimenti, cassa-

16On Sammartini and Haydn, consult Vernon Gotwals, Joseph Haydn: Eighteenth-century Gentleman and Genius (Madison, 1963), pp. 12-13, 217 fn. 13, and the refer-ences given there; Bathia Churgin and Newell Jenkins, "Sammartini," MGG, Vol. XI,col. 1337. The documentary information on C. P. E. Bach and Haydn is assembled nE. F. Schmid, "Joseph Haydn und Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach," Zeitschrift firMusikwissenschaft, XIV (1932), 299-3x12; the best stylistic discussion remains Her-mann Abert, "Joseph Haydns Klavierwerke," ibid., II (1919-20), 553-73 and III(1920-21), 535-52.

17According to Schmid's Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach und seine Kammermusik(Kassel, 193i), the only works not requiring keyboard as continuo or obbligatoinstrument were scored for winds alone and published in I775 (Wq. 184-187). Thecontemporary notices of Haydn's early quartets are collected in Sandberger, "ZurEinbiirgerung der Kunst Joseph Haydns in Deutschland," Neues Beethoven-Jahrbuch,VI (1935), 5-25.

18 Newman, Classic Sonata, pp. 66-67; Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett,pp. 16-23.

19Most of Holzbauer's ensemble chamber music without keyboard originatedbefore his removal to Mannheim via Stuttgart in 1751 (Lehmann, "Holzbauer,"MGG, Vol. VI, col. 66i; Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, pp. 63-64).20 In this study the use of a term in the sense of a title (as in the first sentence inthis paragraph) is signified by the use of a capital letter, by italic type, and by thelack of quotation marks; in the sense of a genre (as in the following sentence) by alower-case initial letter and by Roman type. For brevity's sake, however, the italicizedtitles are often given and inflected in English rather than in the varied and incon-sistent local spellings. Thus "Quartets were not common until 1780 . . ." refers toworks titled Quartetto, Quatuor, Quadro, and so forth, whatever their scoring; while"Quartets were not common until 1780 . . ." refers to ensemble works in four parts,whatever their titles.



216 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL OCIETY

tions, notturni, and serenades.21 Even Finscher's areful distinctions-Divertimenti sinformal r social music or almost any scoring, erenadesas music for some definite purpose (not further specified), Notturni(naturally) s "night music," nd Cassations s concert-ending orks-are artificial; is discussion ircles around he single concept: multi-movement ensemble works of informal character.22 Actually, neithercommon explanation of these terms-general synonyms for "informalensemble music," or separate titles for different classes of informalmusic-is correct. For the true story we must turn to contemporaryaccounts.

Numerous 18th-century writers on music describe the term Serenade,

chiefly as a vocal piece performed outdoors at night with honorific oramorous intent, but also acknowledging purely instrumental pieceswritten for the same purpose.23 For example, J. A. P. Schulz's article"Serenade" from the second volume of Sulzer's Allgemeine Theorie derschonen Kiinste (1774):

... Man giebt auch bisweilen den Namen der Serenaden der Musik, wennsic auch blos instrumental wire, die man etwa gewisenen Personen zu Ehren,oder als einen Gliikwunsch, bey angehender Nact vor ihren Hiiusern auf-fiihret, und die man insgemein im Deutschen Stiindchen nennet.

... Der Tonsetzer . . . hat sich vorziiglich eines einfachen, sehr fliessendenGesanges zu befleissigen, [der] mehr consonirend als dissonirend zu setzen[ist]

...24

But perhaps partly because of the conservative and "high-minded"orientation of North German theory in the 18th century, Divertimentodid not make an appearance until the 178o's. In an Elementarbuch cus-

tomarily ascribed to its publisher Bossler, actually compiled by JohannFriedrich Christmann, Divertimento is described as ". . . a generic name,applicable to a number of forms, but commonly applied to the cyclicsonata for one or more instruments."25

21 E.g., Sandberger, Streichquartett," p. 228-38; Rowen, Early Chamber Music,pp. 140-41; Hans Engel, "Divertimento, assation, erenade," MGG, Vol. III, cols.597-606; Riemann-Lexikon, 2th ed., Vol. III (Mainz, 1967), s.v. "Divertimento"(Elmar Seidel, p. 235), "Kassation" ([Eggebrecht], p. 447), "Nocturne" Seidel, pp.635-36), "Serenade" ([Eggebrecht], p. 867); Henrotte, Divertimento, p. 7-8; Meyer,"Divertimento," . 165; Hans Hoffman, "Ober die Mozartschen erenaden undDivertimenti," Mozart-Jahrbuch, III (1929), 59-79; Hausswald, Mozarts Serenaden(Leipzig, 195I), pp. 5-10, 35-36; Reimund Hess, Serenade, Cassation, Notturno undDivertimento ei Michael Haydn (Mainz, 1963),pp. 174-83.22

Finscher, Das klassische treichquartett, p. 1o6- 3.23 Ibid., pp. 107-8.24 Johann Georg Sulzer, Allgemeine Theorie der schinen Kiinste, 2 vols. (Leipzig,

1771-74), quoted here from the second edition (Leipzig, 1792-94), IV, 369: "Thetitle Serenade is also used for purely instrumental compositions, which, to honor orcongratulate specific personages, are performed at dusk in front of their houses; suchpieces are generally called Stdndchen in German. The composer must strive to writesimple, flowing melodies, set primarily to consonant rather than dissonant har-monies ....

25Elementarbuch der Tonkunst . . . , 12 issues in 2 vols. (Speyer, 1782-89); as




Thus the definitions in Heinrich Christoph Koch's MusikalischesLexikon (1802) appear to be the first attempt at systematic distinctions

among all these terms. These read:26

Divertimento. Der Name einer Gattung der Tonstiicke fiir zwey, drey,vier oder mehr Stimmen, die bey der Ausfiihrung nur einfach besetzt werden.Die verschiedenen Sitze, aus welchen ein solches Tonstiick bestehet, sind wederpolyphonisch gesetzt, noch so weitliufig gearbeitet, wie die eigentlichenSonaten-Arten. Sie haben mehrentheils keinen bestimmten Charakter, ondernsind bloss Tongemilde, die mehr auf der Erg6tzung des Ohres, als auf denAusdruck einer bestimmten Empfindung mit ihren Modifikationen, Anspruchmachen.

Das Divertimento kam zu Anfange der zweyten Hilfte des verwichenen

Jahrhundertes stark in Gebrauch, nachdem sich die Liebhaberey an denvorher sehr jiblichen Parthien zu vermindern angefangen hatte. Seit geraumerZeit hat es dem Quartett und Quintett ziemlich weichen miissen, nachdemdiese Sonaten-Arten durch Haydn und Mozart so fleissig bearbeitet undvervollkommt worden sind.

Cassatio, ital. Cassazione, heisst w6rtlich eine Entlassung oder Abdan-kung, und soll ohne Zweifel eigentlich ein solches Tonstiick bezeichnen, womiteine veranstaltete Instrumentalmusik beschlossen wird. Man verstehet abergemeiniglich darunter (besonders in Italien) ein Tonstiick, welches zurAbsicht

hat,dass es Abends im

Freyenoder auf

i6ffentlicherStrasse

ausge-fiihret werde. Es bestehet bald aus vier, bald aus mehrern Stimmen, die nureinfach besetzt werden, und die einzelnen Saitze desselben haben keinenbestimmten Charakter.

Notturno, ist der allgemeine Name solcher Tonstiicke, die bestimmt sind,bey Nachtzeit, es sey nun im Freyen oder in einem Zimmer, ausgefiihret zuwerden. [Es bezeichnet] solche drey- vier- oder mehrstimmige Instrumental-stiicke, wobey jede Stimme, so wie bey den Sonatenarten, nur einfach besetztwird, die aber keinen Anspruch auf einen festbestimmten und durchgehaltenenCharakter machen, sondern wobey man sich bloss an einem fir die Ein-bildungskraft oder fiir das Ohr bestimmten Tongemilde begniigt.

Suite . . . Gegen die Mitte des verwichenen Jahrhunderts verwandeltensich die Suiten in die so gennanten Parthien, in welchen man ausser denTanzmelodien auch ein Allegro, Andante, oder Presto von willkiihrlichemCharakter aufnahm .... Anjetzt giebt man den Namen Parthie (Parthia oderPartita) denjenigen Tonstiicken, die fir mehrere Arten von Blasinstrumentengesetzt sind, in welchen aber, ausser der Menuet, selten andere charakte-ristische Tanzmelodien vorkommen.

Toparaphrase

Koch's definition of Divertimento: it is agenre("Gattung") of instrumental music, comprising compositions for two,

three, four, or more parts, performed by soloists; its several movementsare neither "polyphonic," nor as long and complicated as those in

paraphrased n Strunk, "Haydn's Divertimenti," . 228. On the authorship, f. RISM,B VII, pp. 170, 222.

26 Koch, Musikalisches exikon (Frankfurt, 8o02),cols. 440-441, 307, o1078, 463,respectively.



218 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

sonata-type works, nor distinguished by any particular expressive content

("Charakter").27 They are mere "tone-pictures," intended more forthe hearer's delectation than his edification. The terms Cassatio andNotturno reflect the same concept; Koch's attempts to distinguish themfrom Divertimento do not go beyond vague references to outdoor

performance for the Cassatio and nocturnal performance for theNotturno.

But Koch's and Christmann's accounts imply a historical development.Distinguishing carefully between contemporary and earlier meanings,Koch writes that the Divertimento supplanted the Partita (previouslythe most popular genre) early in the second half of the i8th century;

but after a period of intense cultivation, it gave way "some time ago,"in its turn, to the modern quartet and quintet. The article Suite claimsthat the Partita developed out of the dance suite shortly before 1750,by the inclusion of one (or more?) sonata-type movements among theolder dance-related ones. (In Koch's own time, however, the titlePartita indicated a work for large wind ensemble.)

Christmann's account defines Divertimento not in terms of "light"music at all, but simply as a general name for sonata cycles in chamber

scorings. Chronologically, this corresponds well with Koch's placementof the Divertimento between the Partita and the Classical genres, orroughly ca. 1760 to ca. 1780. Koch, writing about i8oo, describes as"modern" the practice of the 1780's and 1790's, as is clear from his

description of Haydn's and Mozart's late quartets as the most recentlyperfected ("vervollkommt") kind of sonata music. Thus we may pre-sume that Christmann, writing in 178o or so, was describing the practiceof the 1760's and 1770's. And so if Partite (around 1750) already con-tained some sonata movements, Divertimenti (around 1770) must have

included more.From these accounts we can construct a model of the developmentof Classical chamber music in Austria. The process, which lasted fromca. 1740 to ca. 178o, led from the dance suite to the Classical sonata, trio,quartet, and quintet. In the middle of this development came musictitled Partita and Divertimento. But the relationship between these titlesand the serious genres was not one of character alone, as it was to bein i8oo. In the 1760's and I77o's Divertimento was the principal designa-tion for all nonorchestral instrumental music, including "serious" sonatasand quartets. After 178o, simultaneously with and as a reaction againstthe fully established Classical style, Divertimento became restricted to

27 By "Sonata" Koch (like all theorists in this period) denotes the entire range ofserious" multimovement instrumental scorings. Cf. the article "Sonata," bid., cols.

1415-17; and the Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition, 3 vols. (Rudolstadt and

Leipzig, 1782-93; facsimile reprint, Hildesheim, 1969), III, 315 if.




the more modest sense familiar to us: music in a "lighter" style thanthe "serious" mainstream genres, written for different purposes, per-formed in different settings, and disseminated by different means.

The Title "Divertimento": The Principal GenresThe musical sources prove that this model is correct. Although our

proper subject is ensemble music without keyboard, the solo and accom-

panied keyboard sonata offers the clearest initial substantiation. A fewViennese solo keyboard sonatas from the 1750's or 1760's, includingat least one by M. G. Monn and several by Joseph Haydn, are titledPartita (normally spelled Partitta or Parthia).28 But the title Divertimento

was already more common in the 1750's, and it reigned almost unchal-lenged in the 1760's: the four authentic prints of Wagenseil's sonatas

Opp. 1-4, published by Bernardi from 1753 to 1763, J. A. Stepin's[Steffan, Steffani] Op. I (1759), and a great majority of Haydn'ssonatas antedating 177 1.29 Both the Partite and the Divertimenti are

independent multimovement works of absolute music, comparable tosonatas in style and format. (That the title Partita need not imply aconnection with the suite is further demonstrated by its use for early

Haydn symphonies: analogously,these are

indistinguishablein

stylefrom

other early symphonies.30) When the title Sonata did appear, as in Stepin'sOp. 2 (176o; only one year after his Op. i), it had no special sig.nificance: the works are indistinguishable from Divertimenti.a31

Haydn first used the title Sonata in 1771, on the autograph of the"Sturm und Drang" C Minor sonata Hob. XVI:20: Sonata p. il ClaviCembalo. The six sonatas of 1773 (Hob. XVI:21-26) bear the autographdesignation Sei Sonate per Cembalo, and both this and the following set(Hob. XVI:27-32; 1774-76[?]) carry the designation Sonata in EK.

Yet the only autograph material for the latter set, a fragment of Hob.XVI: 29, is titled Divertimento da Clavicembalo! Contemporary Viennese

manuscript copies also transmit these works under both titles. Onlywith Hob. XVI:35-39, published in 1780, do the authentic sources uni-

formly transmit Sonata, which remains the standard title thereafter.32

28 Newman, Classic Sonata, pp. 350, 463-65; Feder, foreword to JHW, XVIII/I,p. viii. A facsimile of the autograph of Hob. XVI:6, titled "Partitta per il Clavicem-balo Solo," is found on the frontispiece to the same volume.

29 ForWagenseil,

seeHelga Scholz-Michelitsch,

Das Klavierwerk vonGeorgChristoph Wagenseil: Thematischer Katalog (Vienna, 1966), pp. 23-25, Sources

D,F,H,L; Gericke, Musikalienhandel, p. 130-31, Nos. 72-75; Newman, Classic Sonata,p. 353. For ktepain, see Gericke, p. 128, No. 58; Newman, p. 358; Dana ketkovi inMGG, Vol. XII, cols. x257-58. For Haydn, as in fn. 28 and the entries in Hoboken.

30Landon, Symphonies, pp. 22, 24, 25.31 Gericke, p. 128, No. 59; Newman, Classic Sonata, p. 353-32JHW, XVIII/i, pp. x, xi and n. 3i; XVIII/2, pp. vii-viii. The autograph titles

to Hob. XVI:20 and 21xcan be seen on the frontispiece to the latter volume.




Step~in's works from the early 1770's also bear this title, already estab-lished in his Op. 2.-

Closely related to solo keyboard works were the various accompaniedkeyboard sonatas that we now call violin sonatas, piano trios, pianoquartets, and so forth.34 The nomenclature of these works parallelsthat of the unaccompanied sonata. Haydn's numerous keyboard triosfrom the 1750's and early 1760's are titled both Partita and Divertimento,but his mature trios from the 1780's and 1790's are Sonatas. A related

group of early Haydn keyboard quartets (Hob. XIV: 2-10) and a key-board quintet with two horns (Hob. XIV:i) bear the title Divertimentoin almost all the authentic sources, including Haydn's autograph entries

in EK.35 (But local sources for two of the works which Hoboken citesas "divertimenti" [Group XIV] bear the titles Concerto or, more pro-vocatively, Concertino, the title on the autograph to Hob. XIV: ii. Partlybecause these works have the cyclic pattern F-S-F instead of threemovements including a minuet, Feder calls them "miniature concerti,"

implying orchestral rather than soloistic performance. If this is so,Haydn's varied terminology correlates neatly with substantive distinc-tions of scoring and format.36) The Viennese print of Wagenseil'strios Op. 5 (1770) is titled Divertimento; the same title appears onthe autographs to three sets of accompanied keyboard works, dated1764 to 1774, by the young E. A. Fdrster. A fourth group of Fdrstertrios and a violin-keyboard work, from 1774, however, are Sonatas.37 Theuniform use of Divertimento for accompanied keyboard works a 4 anda 5 as well as '

3, incidentally, argues against the recent hypothesis thatthese larger scorings constituted a separate genre from the "piano trio."38

A final indication that these Viennese Divertimenti were not nec-

essarily "light" music is the appearance of "serious" titles in the foreign

sources for them. Wagenseil's unaccompanied keyboard Divertimenti3 Gericke, Musikalienhandel, p. 128-29, Nos. 63-65. (No. 58 on p. 128 is the

only print titled Divertimenti; ewman, Classic onata, . 358,n. 149 hould be clari-fied accordingly.)

34See Newman, Classic onata, p. 98-o105, 68-75,490-95.35Feder, "Haydns friihe Klaviertrios," Haydn-Studien, I (1969-70), 289-316;

Hoboken, quoting the sources and letters in detail for the late trios XV:5-32;Hoboken XIV: I-Xo.6Hoboken XIV:II,13; Feder, "Lo stato attuale degli studi su Haydn," Nuovarivista musicale italiana, II (1968), 641; Horst Walter's preface to an edition of some

of these works (Munich-Duisberg, 1968). But elsewhere the title Concertino impliedsoloistic music: see, for example, Lehmann, Wesen des Streichquartetts, p. 42-44;Henry G. Mishkin, "Five Autograph String Quartets by . . . Sammartini," hisJOURNAL, VI ('953), 136-47.

3 Wagenseil: Scholz-Michelitsch, Das Orchester- und Kammermrnusikwerk onGeorg Christoph Wagenseil: Thematischer Katalog (Vienna, 1972), p. 25, Source SS;Gericke, Musikalienhandel, p. 131, No. 76. F6rster: Denkmiiler der Tonkunst inOsterreich [DTO], XXXV/I (67), [vii-viii] (Karl Weigl).38 The hypothesis is stated in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Neue Ausgabe sdmt-licher Werke [NMA], VIII/22/2, p. x, n. I8.




are called "Sonatas" and "Lessons" elsewhere; in the 1760's the Breitkopfcatalogues used the title Terzetti for Haydn's accompanied Partite andDivertimenti, and other sources for these works read Sonata and Con-certo.39 Even in Austria the Viennese preference for Divertimento wasnot always observed: Haydn's sonata Hob. XVI:45 (1766), whose auto-

graph reads Divertimento, appears in a Gottweig manuscript under thetitle Sonata.40 Thus Viennese keyboard music from 1750 to 1795 demon-strates the accuracy of our historical model. Its coherence of musical styleand consistent terminological development from Partita through Diver-timento to Sonata (and Trio) allow us to describe this entire repertory asa single genre.

The more variegated ensemble scorings "proper" follow the samepatterns.41 Divertimento is by far the most common title in Austrianchamber music between 1750 and 178o, appearing in local sources for

nearly half the works, including every principal type. Quartet (Quar-tetto, Quadro, Quatuor, . . .), the next-most-common title, occurs lessthan one-third as often. Other common titles include Cassation, Notturno,Partita, Quintet, Serenade, Sonata, and Trio.

Of greater significance are two subgroups within this collection oftitles: Cassations, Notturni, and Serenades on the one hand; Sonatas, Duos(Duets), Trios, and Partite on the other. Within each of these groups,duplicate titles occur frequently, often on different sources for the samework; but the titles from the other group are absent. The Sonata-Partita-Trio group comprises chiefly "serious" works, generally in four or fewer

parts for strings alone, and when in three parts usually scored for twoviolins and bass rather than violin, viola, and bass.42 The Cassatio-Notturno-Serenade group transmits chiefly "light" works, usually in fouror more parts, and in all the principal scorings (strings, winds, and mixed

ensembles). Yet many works in both groups, and in the same proportion(ca. 25%), are also transmitted as Divertimnenti. For example, Diverti-mento as a duplicate title for works from the Sonata group turns up foran Albrechtsberger Sonata for two violins and bass, dated 1786; for

Haydn's (lost) baryton duets Hob. XII:20zo-23, string trio Hob. V:21,

flute trios Hob. IV:6-11, and horn trio Hob. IV:5; and for Mozart'sDivertimento K. 563 (so titled in his thematic catalogue, but called

oWagenseil: Newman, Classic Sonata, p. 353; Scholz-Michelitsch, Kanvmermusik

Wagenseils, pp. 24-26, Sources J,P,Q. Haydn: Hoboken; Feder, "Klaviertrios," . 289;Breitkopf, pp. 253, 291, 364, 431.

40 Hoboken at XVI:45.41 The assertions which follow are based on a repertory of over i,ooo works,

compiled from information in the published literature and materials at the JosephHaydn-Institut, and catalogued in Webster, "The Bass Part," Appendix. While first-hand examination of the entire repertory in the primary sources must naturally pre-cede any full-scale history, it could hardly lead to substantive changes in these results.

42 On the Sonata-Partita-Trio group, see Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, pp. 83-91,98-99.




"Trio" in letters).43 Works in the Cassation group include the Albrechts-

berger Divertimento a quattro in D Major which, until recently, seemedthe best candidate for a "lost" early Haydn string quartet (Hob. III:D3);Haydn's early string quartets Hob. II:6, III:1-4,6-8,1o,12, divertimentiHob. II: 1,2,9,11,17,20-22, and twelve "Cassatio stiicke" Hob. XII: 19; andHolzbauer's Notturni for mixed sextet, arranged as Divertimenti for stringquintet, both in autograph.44 Thus Cassations and Notturni are separategenres neither from each other, nor from Divertimenti (when the lattertitle appears in this context). Indeed, single sources often bear occasionallyamusing duplicate titles, such as a manuscript of Haydn's octet Hob. II: 8

reading "Divertimento in forma d'una Cassatione"; a "Cassatio il Not-

turno" by Johannes Sperger (I750-I812); or Mozart's "Serenade Not-turna" [sic] K. 239.45

Like the keyboard works, Viennese ensemble Divertimenti prove theirconnection with "serious" genres by their appearance in other regionsunder different titles. Among works for strings alone-the most importantsubrepertory-we have noted above that Breitkopf cites a group of earlyHaydn quartets, titled Divertimento, Cassation, and Notturno in thesources, by the title Quadri. Breitkopf's citations of Op. 9 and Op. 20

also use the latter title, and (except for two that are Symphonies) all the

printed editions of Haydn's quartets through Op. 20 are titled Quartet;yet the authentic sources for Opp. 9, 17, and 20 use Divertimento exclu-

sively.46 (When the title Quartet appears on Austrian or Bohemian manu-

scripts, the latter often reveal themselves to be copies of prints, importedfrom other regions. This practice was common wherever music printinghad not developed locally on a large scale, as in Vienna before 178o and inBohemia and Italy well into the 19th century.47) A pair of GassmannDivertimenti a 4, on the other hand, appear in a foreign manuscript as

4 For Albrechtsberger, see Liszl6 Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften n derNationalbibliothek Szich6nyi, Budapest," Studia Musicologica, I (1961), 175-202 andIV (1963), 179-9o, No. 51. For Haydn see Hoboken and, for the baryton duets,EK, p. 8; for the flute trios, Joseph Haydn: Gesammelte Briefe und Aufzeichnungen,ed. Denes Bartha (Kassel, 1965), p. 153 (the quotation in Hoboken, p. 468, should becorrected accordingly); for the string trio, EK, p. i3. For Mozart, see his Verzeich-niiss aller meiner Werke vom Monath Febrario 1784 . .. , facsimile ed. (New York,195-) and Mozart: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen. Gesamtausgabe, d. Wilhelm A. Bauerand Otto Erich Deutsch (Kassel, 1962-), IV, 10o5.

44Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften" , No. 39. Haydn: for the quartets, as

in fn. 7 above; for the divertimenti, Hoboken and JHW, VIII (in preparation); forthe baryton pieces: JHW, XIII. Holzbauer: Das Erbe deutscher Musik, Vol. XXIV(Lehmann), p. 113, Nos. 3-5.

45Hoboken; K6chel; for Sperger, see Adolf Meier's essential Konzertante Musikfiir Kontrabass in der Wiener Klassik (Giebig iiber Preim am Chiemsee, 1969),pp. 50, 171-79.

46 JHW, XII/2-3 (the latter volume scheduled to appear in 1974).47 See Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. 131-32; Kirkendale, Fuge und

Fugato, p. 90 and fn. 38; JHW, XII/I, Kritischer Bericht, sources (4), (13) andp. 12, fnn. 8-9.




Sonatas; a set a 3 turns up with the latter title in a manuscript collectionnow at the Library of Congress.48 Conversely, Johann Stamitz's Mann-heim-Paris Sonate a 3 or Trios Op. i appear in Viennese manuscripts asDivertimenti.49 Hence, when it appears on a Viennese source, the lattertitle does not, of itself, imply anything other than a "full-fledged" stringtrio, quartet, or quintet.

In order to make further distinctions within this large repertory wemust turn to the musical scorings. Three large classes emerge: works for

strings alone; for strings and winds together ("mixed" scorings); andfor winds alone. The mixed scorings can be subdivided into those for

melody instruments exclusively (including a concertante horn, as in

Haydn's Divertimento-Trio Hob. IV:5 or Mozart's quintet K. 407), andthose in which at least two horns (or trumpets) are present. Amongthese broad categories, works for strings alone comprise well over halfthe total repertory. Trios and quartets predominate; duets and works infive parts are perhaps one-fifth as common.50 Works in mixed scoringsaccount for roughly a third of the total, with both subgroups relativelycommon; they are distributed relatively evenly among small, medium, and

large ensembles. Wind-band music brings up the rear, with between 5%and i o%; these favor six- and eight-part scorings.

If we relate the titles to these different scorings, the genres themselvesemerge. Among works for strings a 2 and & , about half bear the titleDivertimento, and half share equally the titles Sonata, Partita (trios only),and Duet-Trio. In works a 4, Divertimento once again occurs about halfthe time, but its most important "complement" is Quartet; Sonata andPartita drop out of the picture almost completely. The mixed works for

melody instruments maintain the same patterns in all respects save two:Sonate and Partite, associated with pure string ensembles and often per-

formed in church, are rare; and Cassations, Notturni and the rest, whollysecular, make a modest appearance (ca. ISo-20%; among works for

strings their percentage is under 5%). With the works in mixed scoringsincluding two or more horns, the title Divertimento still plays a signifi-cant role, but the "alternate" titles switch decisively: about two-thirds ofthese works are transmitted by one or more of the group Cassation,Notturno, Serenade, and Concertino. Conversely, these scorings comprise

48 The quartets: Meyer, Gassmann, pp. 154-55, Nos. 19-21; Kirkendale, Fuge und

Fugato, pp. 33 (MS 8), 92-93. The trios: Meyer, pp. 147-48, Nos. 4-7; Kirkendale,p. 32.

49Engel, "Divertimento," MGG, Vol. III, cols. 6o0-2; Wolf (as in fn. 15).5oThe only potentially "true" string sextet I have noted is a Wagenseil Sestetto

for four violins, viola, and cello (Scholz-Michelitsch, Karmmermusik Wagenseils,No. 487). A Concertino fugato by M. G. Monn (cited by Wilhelm Fischer in DTOXIX/2 (39), thematic catalogue, No. 37 and by Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato,pp. 30-3x) hardly qualifies: it features a solo violin, the cello and double-bass prob-ably double on the bass part, and it is a fugue, not a cyclic work. By the same tokenMozart's Serenade Notturna can hardly be said to be an eight-part work.




nearly three-quarters of the incidences of these titles. Titles and scoringsare both distributed evenly by size of ensemble. The wind-band music,finally, also transmits Divertimento frequently. Cassation and its fellows

appear but rarely; here the "slack" is taken up by Partita, which occurs asoften as Divertimento. The most common scoring is a 6: two oboes, twohorns, and two bassoons.51

These observations allow us to define five principal genres in Austrianchamber music during the third quarter of the i8th century. For melodyinstruments, we have (i) duets and "old-fashioned" trios for two melodiesand bass; (2) string trios in "modern" scorings, string quartets, and stringquintets; and (3) mixed melody-instrument ensembles in "modern" scor-

ings. In addition, we must cite (4) mixed ensembles for strings, two horns,and occasional obbligato winds; and (5) wind-band music. Among thefirst three genres, the distinctions between the "old-fashioned" and the"modern" scorings are that the latter have no registral "gap" between the

melody instrument(s) and the bass (and hence no radical distinction ofmusical substance), and they include duplications of range only in ensem-bles of four and more parts. Furthermore, the "modern" trios frequentlywere titled Divertimento, while the "older" type favored Sonata andPartita.52

The important and inadequately known genre comprising music forstrings and two horns, called Cassations, Notturni, and so forth, and ofcourse also Divertimenti, includes over seventy works, from every decade:

by Werner, M. G. Monn, and Wagenseil before and around I750o;53 tenworks by Haydn from the 1750's and 1760's (including the two sextets

erroneously known as the string quartets Op. 2, Nos. 3 and 5), and others

by Dittersdorf, Du'ek, Gassmann, and Mica;54 Haydn's baryton octets(and Mozart's intimate Divertimenti such as the "Lodronische Nacht-

musiken" K. 247 and 287) from the 1770's, along with other works byMichael Haydn and Vanhal;55 and even the 178o's saw a set of six septets51Cf. Koch's remarks quoted above. The title Harmonie (Harmoniemusik), com-

mon after x780 for the newer scoring comprising two each of oboes, clarinets, horns,and bassoons, s rare before 1780.

52 On these trio-scorings, see Newman, Classic Sonata, pp. 94-98; Kirkendale,Fuge und Fugato, pp. 83-99; Hubert Unverricht, Geschichte des Streichtrios (Tut-zing, 1969). On the division of the tonal ranges among the instruments, see Rowen,Early Chamber Music, pp. 83-90; Finscher, Das klassischle treichquartett, pp. 162-64;Unverricht, p. 20oi. Once again Koch already notices the historical development; see

his Versuch, III, 322-25, and the interpretation n Unverricht, pp. Ioo-ioi.53Werner: Breitkopf, p. 152 (1765). Monn: DTO, XIX/2 (39), catalogue, No. 2

(the bass specifies "Violoncello" alone, in spite of the title Symphonia). Wagenseil:Breitkopf, p. 151 (1765).

54Haydn: Hob. II:8,9,i6,i17,20-22; X:7,9,i0. Dittersdorf: Krebs, Dittersdorfiana,Nos. I28-30, 132, 134. Dusek: Breitkopf, p. 4x3 ('77'). Gassmann: Alfred Planyavsky,Geschichte des Kontrabasses (Tutzing, 1970), pp. 138-39. Mica: MGG, Vol. IX, col.264 (Jaroslav Bu'ga).

55Haydn: Hob. X: I-6,12. Mozart: K. 205, 247, 251, 287, 334; cf. Bir, "Basso."M. Haydn: Lothar Perger in DTO, XIV/2 (29), thematic catalogue, Nos. 90, 96, io6;




for five strings and two horns ad lib. by Dittersdorf, numerous works bythe double-bass virtuoso Johannes Sperger, Mozart's Musikalischer Spass(K. 522), and Haydn's lyre Notturni (Hob. II: 25-32).56 The number of

parts ranges from four to nine, but the most common scoring by far isthe "standard" ensemble of six parts comprising four strings and thetwo horns.57

The title Serenade (Serenata, Serenade, and so forth) was rare in i8th-century Austria. The notion that "serenades" must be orchestral or wind-band music appears to derive from the modern use of this title for W. A.Mozart's "festive" Salzburg works, the three large Viennese wind-bandworks (K. 361, 375, and 388), and Eine kleine Nachtmusik (K. 525). Yet

only a fraction of the Salzburg serenades bear the title Serenade; Wolf-gang and Leopold called the majority Cassation and Finalmusik (a refer-ence to the end of the University semester). Of the large works for winds,only K. 388 bears Serenade as an authentic title; in letters to his fatherMozart called K. 375 and another work "Nacht Musique" (that is, not-turno, in the modern sense); the only title (not authentic) for the thir-teen-wind piece is Gran Partita. And Mozart calls K. 525 Eine kleineNacht Musick (that is, once again, notturno) in his own thematic cata-

logue.5s Conversely, the title Serenade occasionally appears on stringedand mixed works which clearly or probably are soloistic.59 Works bearingthis title therefore cannot automatically be denied the status of "true"chamber music.

The group for winds alone is equally well defined: these can be called"partite" today, in accordance with Koch's account of the late works after1780. But even Haydn's early wind music bears Feld-Parthie ("outdoorpartita") as a characteristic title.

Since all of these genres are frequently called Divertimento, this title

did not designate any genre. Moreover, it did not even suggest the roughlimits of style or function implied by the concept "entertainment music."This could hardly be clearer than in Joseph Haydn's compositional prac-tice.60 Before 178o, the vast majority of Haydn's nonorchestral ensemble

Hess, Michael Haydn, p. 33 and Anhang, Nos. 7-9. Vanhal: Eitner, X, i75; Breitkopf,p. 413 ('771); MGG, Vol. XIII, cols. 1259-60 (Milan Po'tolka).

56 Dittersdorf: Krebs, Dittersdorfiana, Nos. 179-84. Sperger: as in fn. 45-57In Salzburg, this genre divides into an "intimate," oloistic type and a "public,"festive, orchestral type.58Blir, "Basso"; NMA, IV/I2/1-3,6 prefaces (Hausswald); K6chel for the workscited; Mozart Briefe, III, 17i; Mozart's Verzeicbniiss at K. 525.

59E.g., Dittersdorf's Sereinata for two horns and strings, printed in DTO, XLIII(8i) (Viktor Luithlen; cf. also the source descriptions, pp. 62-63), and two otherworks (Krebs, Dittersdorfiana, Nos. 129, I30); a mixed quintet by Ko eluch (MGG,Vol. VIII, col. 1663; Othmar Wessely); and even a Pleyel string quartet (JosephKlingenbeck in MGG, Vol. X, col. 1356).

60 This point appears, stated less forcefully and with less detail, in Landon, Sym-phonies, p. 23; Meyer, "Divertimento," pp. 168-69; Feder, "Klaviertrios," p. 308.




works in three and more parts are tidtled Divertimento: the keyboard works(discussed above); all but one of the twenty early divertimenti (in themodern sense!) for five and more parts which have authentic titles (Hob.II: 1-5,8-17,20-22; all before 1765); all the early string trios (Hob. V: 1-2 1and a few others; before 1765); all the string quartets through Op. 20

(1772), and some authentic sources for Op. 33 (1781); the 126 barytontrios (Hob. XI; ca. 1765-75); and many other works with baryton, includ-

ing the octets Hob. X:i-6,12 (ca. 1775) and the miscellaneous barytonworks Hob. X:6,9, XII: i18-23. Conversely, not one significant nonorches-tral scoring from this period bears any other primary title. The title Diver-timento thus denoted neither more nor less than "Composition" -for one

or more instruments. Implausible as the comparison may at first appear,Haydn's title Divertimento d quatro for his early string quartets is preciselyanalogous to the modern serialist's "Composition for Four Instruments."

By the same token, the title Divertimento implies no limits on the cyclicpatterns of multimovement works. The five most common patterns (inorder of increasing length) are: (i) the so-called "Italian overture" F-S-F,(2) various three-movement sequences with minuet (F-S-M, S-M-F,S-F-M, and even F-M-F), (3) the familiar F-S-M-F, (4) the "other" four-movement pattern F-M-S-F (just as common as F-S-M-F until ca. 1780),and (5) the symmetrical five-movement pattern F-M-S-M-F.61 Othertypes occur less frequently; single-movement works almost never occurexcept as fugues or fragments;62 and (discounting Marches, trick pieces,movements-within-movements, and juvenilia) eight movements is the ef-fective upper limit. Works titled Divertimento occur with approximatelyequal frequency in all these types. Significant correlations between cyclicpatterns and other stylistic features apply only to individual composers:for example, the three-movement cycle with minuet for Haydn's baryton

trios and early keyboard trios, or the five-movement form of his earlyensemble divertimenti and string quartets.63 Thus Haydn's change to four-movement string quartets in Op. 9 (1769 or 1770) implies a periodizationwithin his own output, but not necessarily within the repertory as a whole.In any case, to assert that the title Divertimento implies any particularcyclic pattern, such as F-M-S-M-F, is wholly untenable.

Another frequently cited criterion distinguishes between works all ofwhose movements are in the tonic (excepting trios within minuets), andothers in which at least one movement is in a different key. The former

61 Kirkendale's assertion (Fuge und Fugato, pp. o102-3, 105-6) that four-movementschemes with an initial slow movement characterize the entire "Rococo" (x740-80) iscomprehensible only for his limited repertory of contrapuntal Sonatas, Partite, etc.,of which many were composed for performance n church.

62Seidel (Riemann-Lexikon, Sachteil, p. 235) almost certainly errs when he citesHaydn's lost baryton divertimenti Hob. XII:2o-23 as one-movement works; Haydn'snotation of single incipits in EK merely conforms to his invariable practice.

63 For the baryton trios, see Strunk, "Haydn's Divertimenti," p. 228; Unverricht,Streichtrio, p. I51-52, 166-67.




type is commonly held to be "conservative," the latter "progressive."Actually this distinction depends not on genre or chronology, but simplyon the cyclic pattern itself: two-movement cycles, three-movement cyclesincluding a minuet, and four-movement cycles beginning with a slowmovement nearly always maintain the tonic; while F-S-F, four-movement

cycles beginning with an Allegro or Moderato, and larger works rarelydo so. Even after 1780, Haydn's flute trios Hob. IV:6,9 and keyboardtrios XV:5-I1,13,I7,24,26,31,32 maintain a single tonic in two-movementworks and three-movement works with the F-S-M patterns, while from thesame genres other pieces, in F-S-F pattern, use related keys within eachwork.

The chronology of these titles and scorings conforms to our historicalmodel. Partita was the most common title before 1750 and appeared fre-

quently until 1760, but after 1770 this title almost always headed worksfor winds alone. Already in the 1750's and still more so in the 1760's,Divertimento appeared on an absolute majority of the sources. Sonatasand Trios, and also Cassations (etc.), appeared without notable change ona modest proportion of the string repertory from 1750 until 1780. Thetitles Quartet and Quintet, hardly present at all in the 1740's and 1750'smade a modest appearance in the 1760's and increased their importancesomewhat in the 1770's. Yet even then it is chiefly foreign sources whichbear these "modern" titles; they came into their own in Vienna itself onlyin the 1780's. Conversely, after receding to a mere plurality in the 1770's,Divertimento sank to fourth-most-common in the 178o's, behind Quartet,Cassation (etc.), and even Quintet.

The history of the scorings takes its own course. Before 1750o, anabsolute majority of ensemble works were trio-sonatas for two melodiesand bass, called variously Partita, Sonata, Trio, Divertimento, and even

Sinfonia;64 and they were still a plurality in the 1750's.65 As early as the176o's, string quartets became the most popular ensemble genre, a positionthey maintained until after 18oo; the trio-sonatas declined precipitouslyafter 1760.66 All the other important scorings appeared in the 1750's andreached a "plateau" in the 1760's which they maintained thereafter.

Since the title Quartet became familiar only in the 1770's and domi-nant only in the 178o's, yet quartets were an essential part of the Austrianchamber repertory from the late 1750's on, it follows that pre-1770 string

64M.G. Monn: DTO, XIX/2 (39), catalogue, Nos. 18-23, 25, 26, 29, 30; cf.Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, p. 29, and Henrotte, Divertimento, p. 57. Giuseppe

Porsile: ibid. Wagenseil, a set of 6 trios: Scholz-Michelitsch, Kammermusik Wagen-seils, Nos. 462, 471, 502, 492, 478, 463, dated 1741; cf. Kirkendale, p. 29. Werner:Das Erbe deutscher Musik, Vol. XXXI; Diletto Musicale, No. 395.

65Albrechtsberger: Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," I, Nos. 40-44, 59.Haydn: Hob. V: 1-6,9-21 and a few others.

66 Cf. the table in Newman, Classic Sonata, p. 69: Breitkopf's repertory, concen-trated before 1780, gives trios and quartets equal billing; Artaria's, 1780-1820, has fourtimes as many quartets.




quartets were primarily titled Divertimento [a quattro] (or, in some earlycases, Partita). Indeed the published literature alone cites well over 15omultimovement string quartets titled Partita and Divertimento. Becauseof the central importance of the string quartet for the Classical style, thisgenre deserves a closer look here.

A Bohemian manuscript for the six Franz Xav. Richter quartets-known (from European prints) as Op. 5-is titled Divertimento a quattro[quadro]. If this source is contemporary with their composition, Richter(b. 1708) must have written these works before his departure for Mann-heim (1747). And Dittersdorf's well-known anecdote,

..

Wir machten uns an sechs neue [Rittersche] Quartetts . . Schweitzer.. spielte das Violoncell, ich die erste [Violine], mein iltere Briider die zweite

Violine und mein jiingere [Briider] die Bratsche . . .

set in the winter of 1756-57, strongly implies that they originated beforethe latter date.67 In any case, the 1750o's saw the production of severalHolzbauer Partite a 4 and, towards its close, Haydn's early quartets.6(Thus the author of the "first" "true" string quartets cannot yet be de-termined: the "candidates" at this writing are Richter [by 1756?], Holz-bauer [by 1751? ], and Joseph Haydn. Boccherini's Op. i presumablydates from immediately before its publication in 1761.) The more inten-sive production in the 176o's included numerous Divertimenti a quattroby Albrechtsberger, Gassmann, Du'ek, Hofmann, and Myslive&ek, doubt-less at least some by Ordofiez and Marianus Paradeiser (1747-75), and

possibly some by Vanhal.69 Most of these composers continued into the1770's, when Haydn reentered the picture with Opp. 9, 17, and 20, alltitled Divertimento in every authentic source. Joseph Starzer's produc-tion, most of Vanhal's, much of Michael Haydn's and the young W. A.

67 The Bohemian source is now in the National Library in Prague (provenance:Osek monastery), XXIII.A.439,3Iz2,437,313,438; f. the edition in Musica AntiquaBohemica, No. 71. That Dittersdorf's anecdote, "We went to work on six newquartets by Richter; Schweitzer played the cello, I and my older brother the firstand second violins, and my younger brother the viola . . ." (Lebensbeschreibung[Leipzig, i8oi]; modern edition [Munich, 1968], p. 96), may refer to these quartetswas suggested by Fritz Oberd6rffer in Der Generalbass n der Instrumentalmusik esausgehenden d8. Jahrhunderts Berlin, 1938), pp. 21-22. To object that Op. 5 was notpublished until 1768 is premature, because in Austria such music was invariablyplayed from manuscripts, and the quartets could well have originated long beforetheir

publication.68Holzbauer: Das Erbe deutscber Musik, Vol. XXIV, p. ii3, No. 6 and p. 114,No. i; Kirkendale, p. 28 and p. 63 (fn. 28). Haydn: JHW, XII/i.

69Albrechtsberger: Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," , Nos. ii-i6 (cf.also Nos. 19-24). Gassmann: Meyer, Gassmann, pp. I52-56, Nos. 14-23; Kirkendale,Fuge und Fugato, pp. 34-35, 92-93. Du ek: Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett,pp. 123-24. Hofmann: Breitkopf, pp. 15I1 765), 277 (0767). Myslive'ek: Finscher,pp. 130-31. Ordofiez: MGG, Vol. X, col. 194 (Landon); Kirkendale, pp. 35-36.Paradeiser: MGG, Vol. X, col. 742 (Friedrich Heller).




Mozart's, probably some of Tomasini's, and the first efforts of Pleyelbelong in the same decade.70

The title Divertimento did not yield to Quartet until the 1780's.Haydn's first quartets after Op. 20 were Op. 33 (1781); these are titledQuartets in Haydn's letters and Artaria's authentic print, but the onlyextant authentic manuscript, at Melk, reads Divertimento - quattro.71 Themodern term did not become wholly natural to Haydn until the mid-1780's, with Op. 42 (1785) and Op. 5o (1787). This terminological changethus occurred even later than that from Divertimento to Sonata in Haydn'skeyboard works. The same change took place in other composers' outputaround the same time. Documents from Esterhaiz n the year 178o memori-

alize the copying of a set of Quartets by Pichl for use by the Kapelle.72To judge from the extant autographs, Albrechtsberger did not useTerzetto, Quartetto, and Quintetto until the 17 8o's..73 Vanhal wrote nu-merous Divertimenti before 178o, but Artaria published a set of six Quar-tets Op. 33 in 1785.74 Nevertheless, Divertimento occurs now and thenin the 178o's and even in the 1790's, for example on quartets by Albrechts-

berger, Michael Haydn, and Pleyel.75These terminological changes reflect the rise of public music in Vienna

around 178o. Instead of restricting themselves to private compositions forthe Kapelle, performed only there and nominally remaining its property,and distributed primarily by manuscripts, composers began to achievewide dissemination of their music to the public by printed editions. (Wehave noted above the rise of Viennese music printing around 178o.) For-

eign as well as domestic works achieved publication, and the use of Frenchon the title pages fostered Quartet, the common title in France, in placeof Divertimento. Op. 33 was the first set of quartets which Haydn himselfsold to a publisher (Artaria) and advertised to a wide public. But Haydn's

angry remark to Artaria, arising out of their misunderstanding over the70Starzer: DTO, XV/2 (31) (Karl Horwitz; Karl Riedel), p. xxiv; Finscher,

Das klassische Streichquartett, p. 125. Vanhal: MGG, Vol. XIII, cols. 1259-60.M. Haydn: Perger, Nos. 93, [12izi], 123 [cf. Hob. III:B9], 125 [cf. Hess, MichaelHaydn, p. 31]. Tomasini: Finscher, pp. 130-31 and "Haydn und das italienische

Streichquartett," Analecta musicologica, IV (1967), 34. Pleyel: Josef Klingenbeck,"Ignaz Pleyel: Sein Streichquartett im Rahmen der Wiener Klassik," Studien zurMusikwissenschaft, XXV (1962), 276-77, z8z (and fn. 16), 284; Weinmann, Voll-stadndiges Verlagsverzeichnis Artaria & Comp. (Vienna, 1952), p. 14.

71 See JHW, XII/3.72 SeeJanos Hairich, "Haydn-Dokumente," Haydn-Yearbook,

III(1965), 145-49,Nos. 35, 41, 42.7 Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," , Nos. 17; 28-30 (cf. Kirkendale,

Fuge und Fugato, p. 89, fn. 33 and DTO, XVI/2 [33], p. 122 [Oskar Kappl); 31;32-36, 38 (cf. Kirkendale, pp. 42-43); Somfai, II, Nos. 45-57.

74Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett, p. 124; MGG, Vol. XIII, i259-6o;Breitkopf, pp. 419 (1770), 488 (1773), 777 (1782-84); Weinmann, Artaria, p. 17.7 Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," , Nos. 31(?), 32-36, 38; Perger,DTO, XIV/2 (29), No. 93; Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. 132-33.




latter's "premature" announcement of Op. 33, illustrates these aestheticand social changes even more graphically: Haydn claimed that Baron vanSwieten had advised him to avoid such misunderstandings in the future

by the following drastic measure: ". . . dass ich fernerhin gerade zu, demPublico meine Compositionen widmen solle."76 Even the idea of dedicat-

ing quartets to "the public" could hardly have occurred to anyone inVienna before 1780. "Command" performances for noble patrons also

began to enjoy detailed reporting in the public press in the I780's.7 Public

performances advertised in advance were only the next logical step; as

early as 1784 Torricella advertised a performance of Pleyel's Op. 2, which"... [Pleyel] von 4 guten Kiinstlern im grossen Passauerhof . . . auffiihren

lassen wird. Die Eintrittsbillets werden . . . unentgeltlich ausgegeben."78In the light of these changes in the means of dissemination and the socialstatus and function of string quartets, the change in terminology around1780 appears logical after all.

These changes are also reflected in conventional histories of the Classi-cal quartet: the appearance of Op. 33 and Mozart's "Haydn" quartets inthe early 1780's is said to mark the "maturity" of the genre. But histori-

cally these quartets were merely the first sets published by either masteron his own initiative. There seems little reason today to perpetuate Sand-

berger's concentration on Op. 33 as "the" stylistic turning point, especiallyas in Haydn's case it was only one of several. At most one could arguethat Haydn's and Mozart's composition of quartets before 178o was

sporadic rather than continuous. In this sense (not necessarily in others),their earlier production was "occasional" music, local in both inspirationand immediate effect.79

The traditional interpretation of the Classical quartet turns out to havebeen a historical invention of the 1790's and early I8oo's. At the least, it

involved the deificationof Mozart after his

death,the idolization of

Haydn in his last years, the canonization of their late quartets as "models"of their kind, and the reaction to Beethoven's increasingly "difficult"music. Koch unambiguously implied this new attitude in his article on

Divertimento, quoted above; but he had already stated it explicitly inthe Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition:

76 Haydn Briefe, p. I15: ". .. that from now on, [instead of dealing with incom-petent publishers,] I should go so far as to dedicate my works to the public."77

ee the description of a performance of Op. 33 (in Haydn's presence), quotedin part below, p. 234.78 Wiener Zeitung, No. ioi (December, 1784): " . . Pleyel will have [his Op. 21

performed by four good artists in the large Passauerhof. Tickets may be had free ofcharge ... ." Quoted from Franz Artaria and Hugo Botstiber, Joseph Haydn und dasVerlagsbaus Artaria (Vienna, 1909), p. 54-

9 For Haydn, the periods are 1757-59; 1770-72; 1781; 1787- (cf. Finscher, MGG,Vol. XII, cols. 1565-67); for Mozart, the concentrated production between 1770 and1773 (NMA, VIII/20o/i/i). The focus on Op. 33 derives from Sandberger, "HaydnsStreichquartett" and still appears in Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett.



VIENNESE CHAMBER MUSIC IN THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 231 I

The Quartet, currently the favorite of intimate musical society, has beenintensively cultivated by recent composers .... Since the modern Quartet is written in galant [as opposed to fugal]

style, each of the four parts must exchange the leading role; likewise now one,now another takes the bass ....Among recent composers in this genre, Haydn, Pleyel, and Hoffmeister

have supplied the greatest riches. But the six quartets for two violins, viola,and cello by the late Mozart, published n Vienna with a dedication to Haydn,best incorporate the idea of a true quartet [dem Begriffe eines eigentlichenQuatuor entsprechen]; in their special mixture of strict and free style and[their] harmonic language, hey are unique ... .8o

The "idea" of a "true" quartet: our modern concentration on Haydn's

Op. 33and Mozart's

"Haydn" quartetsand our

unjustifiedinattention to

their earlier production testify to the power of Koch's model. It is scarcelysurprising that works titled Divertimento composed before 1780 have beenmisunderstood ever since.

Soloistic Performance

A large proportion of mid-i8th-century chamber music was intendedfor orchestral or soloistic performance ad libitum.81 (We will not considerhere the omission of one or more notated musical parts in performance or

the substitution of one melody instrument for another.12) This leaves twoproblems standing in the way of "true" chamber music: (i) the possibilityof orchestral performance and (2) the scoring of the bass part in musicfor soloistic ensemble. Although these questions evidently affect all of the

genres discussed above except wind-band works, this study will focuson the early Austrian string quartet-a sufficiently extensive and signifi-cant repertory to serve as an example for the whole.

Explicit references to ad libitum orchestral scoring occur almost ex-

clusivelyin North and West

European printed sources;and these

(onceagain) cannot be considered representative of Viennese practice.83 Perhaps

80soII, 325-27, my translation. Pleyel's Opp. 1-5 were all published between 178oand 1785 (Klingenbeck, "Pleyel's Streichquartett," p. z8o-8i1).

s81For the general European scene, see Rowen, Early Chamber Music, pp. 2zo-24;Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. 150-55; Unverricht, Streichtrio, pp.io8-i8, 175-79.

82 On these subjects, see Rowen, p. 89; Finscher, pp. 92-93; Unverricht, pp. ix18-23,130-35. Examples of optional horn parts: a set of six Dittersdorf Quintets for twoviolins, viola, cello, and double-bass, "con Corni non obligati" (Krebs, Dittersdorfiana,

Nos. 179-84) and a Vanhal Trio for three strings and two horns (Eitner, X, 175); ofoptional substitution of one melody instrument for another: three Albrechtsbergertrios with viola d'amore and double-bass, two for violin and one for flute (Somfai,"Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," , Nos. 6o-6z); a Holzbauer trio (Das Erbedeutscher Musik, Vol. XXIV, p. II4,

No. 5); and Haydn's divertimenti a 3 Hob.IV:

I-6.3 Contrary to Meyer, "Divertimento," p. 167, Chevardicre's prints of early Haydnquartets reading Six Symphonies ou Quatuors dialoguds do not imply that Haydnintended or tolerated ad lib. orchestral performance. (Furthermore, this title was apassepartout; cf., e.g., Hoboken at 1:33.) Another good example is Boccherini's quar-




partly because of the absence of music printing (and of the attitudes which

printed editions of music fostered and reflected), hardly any contempo-rary Austrian manuscripts for this repertory speak explicitly of such a

practice. We have at best two indirect hints: the appearance in certainworks titled Sinfonia of bass parts marked Violoncello;84 and the inherent

ambiguity of the titles Quartet and Sonata a quattro.In Vienna the titles Sonata, Trio, and Quartet cannot be assumed to

imply soloistic music, partly because they often designated church sonatas.Such works could have been performed orchestrally (and with keyboard[organ] continuo).85 But in fact, only a very small proportion of Vienneseensemble music gives any positive indication of having been composed for

the church. Church music was not in favor during our period; Joseph II'sreforms (1783), which effectively banned concerted music from thechurch, were merely the culmination of a long decline stretching back tothe deaths of Charles VI in 1740 and Fux in 1741.86 For example, save forthe "peripheral" Seven Words (composed in 1785, for a Spanish commis-sion), Haydn wrote no instrumental music for the church. His entire re-

maining instrumental oeuvre is secular, not excluding the several sym-phonies from the 1760's with an initial slow movement or with quotationsof Gregorian melodies (Hob. I:5,II,15,1i8,21,22,(25),34,49; 1:26,30, whosetitle Sinfonia and inclusion of the minuet are sufficient guarantees of secu-lar use). Similarly, Albrechtsberger's early chamber music for stringsoffers many indications of secular intent: the titles Divertimento, Not-turno, and Concertino; cyclic patterns like F-M-S-M-F; "characteristic"titles for individual movements, like Poloneso and Scherzo; and, indi-

rectly, the absence of fugues, so common in his later [church?] Sonatas.87Indeed there are numerous positive indications that the bulk of Vien-

nese ensemble music was secular. In spite of their many fugues, Gass-

mann's ensemble works (1763-74) can be assigned to the chamber on

tets Op. i: often cited, on the basis of Castan's provincial Lyon print, as works forad lib. orchestral performance, nevertheless their status as soloistic music is obviousfrom the title of Venier's authentic Paris edition: Sei Quartetti per due Violini Alto eVioloncello obbligati dedicati a veri dilettanti e conoscitori di musica . .. (see YvesGerard, Thematic . . . Catalogue of the Works of Luigi Boccherini . . . [London,

1969], p. 174).84E.g., M. G. Monn: DTO, XIX/2 (39), p. xviii, and Catalogue, No. 2; Wagen-

seil: Scholz-Michelitsch, Kanmmermusik Wagenseils, Nos. 407, 427, 434, 440. But note

that Haydn's early quartets, which are soloistic (cf. below), exist in numerousmanuscripts titled Sinfonia, e.g., the very early manuscript (1762) at Kremsmiinster(JHW, XII/i, Kritischer Bericht, source [321).

85See Wilhelm Fischer, "Zur Entwicklung des Wiener klassischen Stils," Studienzur Musikwissenschaft, III (I915), 67; Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, pp. 83-95.

86 Pohl, Haydn, I, 27-58; II, 132-33; Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, pp. 87-91.87Divertimento (etc.): Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," I, Nos. 19-27,

31,35; II,40-44,51,58,59, [60-621. F-M-S-M-F (etc.): 1,19,23,24,26,31,39; 11,41,42,59.Characteristic titles: 1,2o; II,40,41,61.




purely historical grounds.8 Only the secular titles Sinfonia and Concerto

appear on the authentic sources for Haydn's orchestral music.89 On theother hand, as noted above, Divertimento rules virtually unchallenged onhis remaining ensemble music. Furthermore, since Haydn did not usetitles like Quartet, his primary sense of Divertimento must have beensoloistic-if it was not, Haydn wrote no soloistic music at all before 1780.And it is well to recall his apparently systematic distinction betweenDivertimento for soloistically accompanied keyboard music and Concertoand Concertino for orchestral works in "the same" scoring.9" These reflec-tions not only establish that most Viennese ensemble music after 178o was

secular-certainly all Divertimenti were so in any case-they lead us to

suspect that most of it was soloistic.But documentary evidence that this repertory was soloistic exists. Anindirect indication is the absence of Dubletten in the contemporary manu-

script sources. Although less than one-half of the sources for Sinfonie,documented church sonatas, and other orchestral works transmit Dublet-ten, nevertheless this proportion translates into thousands of sources forthe period and region as a whole.91 But there are hardly any Dubletten forthe authentic or the "good" (early Austrian) sources for Haydn'sDivertimenti a 4 and a 3. Of I30 manuscript sources for Haydn's earlyquartets, for example, none have Dubletten except on the bass. Of these,one comprises manuscripts made for the double-bass player Sarasin (seebelow); one stems from Breitkopf; one is of uncertain origin; and the lastincludes a bassoon, doubling the viola. None has any connection with

Haydn.92 Nor is Haydn's case exceptional: the few manuscripts for Aus-trian ensemble music which do transmit Dubletten tend to be of provincialor foreign origin, and often the same works exist in local manuscripts with-out Dubletten. Hence, they probably are not indicative of Viennese

practice.93 In other contexts, Dubletten are explicable as deviant practicesundertaken for specific reasons. An example is the large number of double-bass Dubletten for Haydn quartets (and many other works) in thecollection assembled by Lukas Sarasin n Basel, a passionate amateur of that

88 Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, p. 89. The later arrangement of soloistic Diver-timenti for orchestral performance, e.g., as pseudoconcertos (by inserting repetitionsigns and "Solo" and "Tutti" indications; ibid., p. 92) hardly implies that the wholerepertory was orchestral!

89 Forthe symphonies, see Landon, Symphonies, Appendix.90 Cf. p. 220 and fnn. 35-36 above.

91See, for example, Haydn's symphonies: JHW, I/4, Kritischer Bericht, pp. 18,Sources C,D; 2o,B; 2I,D; 22,F,G,H; 25,D,F,K; 27,B,C,D; 28,E; 3o,B,C,D; 35,C,D;37,B; 38,E,H; 39,C; 4oE. This is fewer than half the Austrian sources for theseworks. Cf. Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, p. 91.

92JHW, XII/I, Kritischer Bericht, Sources (125), (77), (93), (120).

0 Finscher, Das klassiche Streichquartett, p. 104. An example is a set of quartetsby Haydn's concertmaster Tomasini (as in fn. 70).




instrument. Such parts cannot be taken as indications of the originalscoring of these works.94

Reports n letters, diaries, utobiographies, nd the like provide directpositive evidence or soloistic performance. he earliest mention haveseen for this repertory s Dittersdorf's anecdote regarding Richter's Op. 5(?), quoted above (p. 228). Its date (1756-57) conforms almost exactlywith the most plausible dates (I757-59) for the quartet parties at BaronFiirnberg's or which Haydn wrote his first quartets:

. . From time to time [Fiirnberg] invited his pastor, his manager, Haydn,and Albrechtsberger (a brother of the celebrated contrapuntist, who playedthe violoncello) in order to have a little music. Fiirnberg requested Haydn tocompose something that could be performed by these four amateurs. Haydn

. . took up this proposal, and so originated his first quartet.....95

Although not wholly unproblematic n other respects, this authenticanecdote speaks unequivocally of soloistic performance.

The next phase in Haydn's output is documented by none other thanDr. Burney, describing a Viennese performance rom September 4, 1772:

Between the vocal parts of this delightful concert, we had some exquisitequartets, by Haydn, executed in the utmost perfection; the first violin byM. Startzler [Starzer], who played the Adagios with uncommon feeling and

expression; he second violin by M. Ordonetz [Ordofiez]; count Briihl playedthe tenor, and M. Weigel [Weigl], an excellent performer on the violoncello,the base.96

The Viennese performance and especially the participation of Weigl,who had been Haydn's principal cellist at Esterhaiz from 1761 to 1769,argue that this soloistic performance represented an authentic tradition.A similar performance of Op. 33 was reported early in 1782:

Vienna, January 9. ... We must report further that [Archduke Maxi-milian's] recent concert consisted of music by the princely Esterhaizy Kapell-meister, the famous Haydn; and the [string] quartet[s were] performed byLuigi Tomasini, Apfelmayr [Aspelmayr], Weigl, and Huber ...97

Here, Haydn was present,98 ccompanied not only by Weigl but by his

94Hoboken, p. 359; JHW, XII/i, Kritischer Bericht, Source (125). (Unverricht,Die beiden Hofstetter [Mainz, 1968], p. 17, should be corrected accordingly.)

95Georg August Griesinger, Biographische Notizen iiber Joseph Haydn (Leipzig,i8io), p. i6, essentially as translated n Vernon Gotwals, Joseph Haydn: Eighteenth-century Gentleman and Genius (Madison, 1963), p. 13.96 The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United

Provinces, 2d ed. (London, 1775; facsimile, New York, 1969), I, 294. On CountBriihl, see ibid., p. 274; on Weigl, see Pohl, Haydn, I, 264-65; Haydn Briefe, pp. 64-65;Janos Hairich, "Haydn-Dokumente," Haydn-Yearbook, II (1963-64), 17; IV (1968),42, No. 51; VII (1970), 67.97Pressburger Zeitung, 1782, No. 4 (January 12); quoted in Marianne Pandi andFritz Schmid, "Musik zur Zeit Haydns und Beethovens in der Pressburger Zeitung,"Haydn-Yearbook, VIII (1971), 182. (Pohl, Haydn, II, 185, paraphrases a similaraccount from the Wiener Zeitung.)

98s ccording to the newspaper report, the assembled nobility honored Haydn bythe gift of a "magnificent bejeweled snuffbox."




concertmaster Tomasini. Thus all three groups of his quartets for which

any authentic source reads Divertimento are documented in soloistic

performance. Hence, the soloistic performances of the mid-178o's, ex-

emplified by Michael Kelly's famous account of the quartet party com-prising Mozart, Haydn, Dittersdorf, and Vanhal, represented not a new

development but the continuation of a thirty-year-old tradition.99 It is

noteworthy that most of these anecdotes report compositions or per-formances commissioned by noble amateurs. Such patronage contributed

significantly to the continuing production of soloistic chamber musicuntil the rise of the public quartet after 178o. The many baryton Diverti-menti for Esterhaizy, written not only by Haydn but Burcksteiner, Neu-

mann, Tomasini, Pichl, and others, are exceptional among such worksonly in their scoring.100 Finally, obligatory soloistic performance was

becoming fashionable in the 1770's even in areas where previously it hadbeen little favored.101

We may conclude that the primary mode of performance for Aus-trian Divertimenti was soloistic. (Indeed the notion of orchestral per-formance has always been based merely on the supposed derivation ofDivertimenti from the suite, on vague stylistic features, and on Northand West European practice.102) In fact, although symphonies and con-certi were performed continually (in princely Kapellen, semipublicdiletanttes' concerts, nocturnal festivals, and, as interludes, for opera andoratorio entre'acts), and chamber music likewise (in the Hofkapelle, inother private Kapellen, by the musicians themselves, and as Hausmusik),"informal" orchestral music hardly seems to have been cultivated in

pre-Classical Vienna.103 There certainly was no Viennese analogue to theMozarts' and Michael Haydn's "festive," public, orchestral serenades in

Salzburg.104 Hence, the theoretically tenable position that the single title

Divertimento might have transmitted both soloistic and informal orches-tral music founders on the lack of evidence for the latter's existence.

99 Kelly: Reminiscences . . ., Vol. I (London, i826); quoted in Deutsch, Mozart:Die Dokumente seines Lebens (Kassel, 1961), pp. 455-56; and throughout the Mozartliterature. Cf. the public performance of Pleyel quartets by "four good artists"(p. 230 and fn. 78 above).

100 Strunk, "Haydn's Divertimenti," pp. 218-19; Efrim Fruchtmann, "The Baryton:Its History and Its Music Re-examined," Acta musicologica, XXXIV (1962), 8-io.

101Cf. pp. 243-46 below, on the question of a keyboard continuo.102 As in Sandberger, "Haydn's Streichquartett," pp. 228-29; Landon, Symphonies,

pp. 176-88; Meyer, "Divertimento," pp. 169-70.103Although none of the standard accounts states this explicitly, it is clearlyinferable from them: K6chel, Die Kaiserliche Hof-musikkapelle in Wien von z543bis 1867 (Vienna, 1869); Eduard Hanslick, Geschichte des Konzertwesens in Wien(Vienna, 1869); Pohl, Haydn, I, 79-116; II, lo9-64; Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato,pp. 59-69, 83-95.

104See Hausswald, Mozarts Serenaden; Biir, "Basso." Meyer's distinction ("Diverti-mento," pp. 169-170) between the "festive" and the "chamber" divertimento is validonly for Salzburg, as her own choice of examples implies (and her assumption oforchestral performance for K. 247 and K. 287 is incorrect).




The Scoring f the BassPart: The Term "Basso"From a musical point of view, Finscher as described he rise of the

string quartets the result of three features:

i)the

"emancipation"f

the cello from he basso ontinuo; 2) obligatory erformance y soloists;(3) the union of a new "standard" nsemble, omprising our members fthe violin family, with the traditional elief n the special perfection ffour-part exture.'05 ll three of these changes primarily ffected hebass part. The first deals with basses explicitly. But so does the third:solo violins and, to a lesser extent, violas were standard n the trio sonataand the North German Quadro or "quartet onata"); ence the unionof the violin family and four-part exture had already been achieved-

for melody instruments.106 ut the Quadro differed rom the stringquartet recisely n its bass: a basso ontinuo n the one case, a solo celloin the other. And even the distinction etween soloistic and orchestralstring ensembles ndirectly nvolved he bass. In a string quartet, achmusical part was a single nstrument, nd all four instruments ere mem-bers of the same "family"; ut mid-i8th-century rchestras performedthe bass n two different ctaves cello, double-bass) nd as many as threedifferent imbres (strings, assoon, eyboard).10o7 hus n relation o both

scoringsfrom which the

quartets believed o have

developed-thesoloistic Quadro with continuo and the orchestral infonia quattro-the principal ifferences nvolved he bass part.

But the scoring of the bass part-solo cello? solo double-bass? elloand double-bass? ontinuo with keyboard?-also poses he most difficultdocumentary roblem n mid-century hamber music or soloists. Sincehistorical nd musical actors both focus attention n bass parts n thisway, they must constitute ne of the most important roblems n the riseof the string quartet tself. The key to this problem s the term Basso.

Bassomeant simply: he bass part.'08 t promised othing bout he iden-tity of the bass nstrument(s) r the number f each that were to play.In particular, asso was neither he name of, nor a synonym or, thedouble-bass.109

o105Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. 134-63. (This combination is an improve-ment over the one offered in MGG, Vol. XII, col. 156x.)

106 On the Quadro, see Sandberger, "Haydns Streichquartett," pp. 239-5x; Rowen,Early Chamber Music, pp. 79, 85-90; Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett, pp.99-106.

107 The best, if not entirely reliable, introduction is Landon, Symphonies, pp.0I O-2 I.

108This usage is equivalent to the old-fashioned Fundamento, still encountered onan occasional post-175o manuscript from the provinces: e.g., manuscripts for JosephHaydn's early quintet Hob. II:2 (arranged as a flute sextet) and three large mixed-ensemble works by Michael Haydn, all in Graz, Diocese Archives, MSS 556, 405-07(for the latter, see Hess, Michael Haydn, p. 33 and Anhang, Nos. 7-9).

109All recent discussions of this question derive directly from Biir, "Basso" (HugoDaffner's provocative, if confused "Was bedeutet 'Basso' n Mozarts Kammermusik?"Die Musik, VI (1906-7), 297-99 never having been followed up). The present ac-count, focusing on the Viennese repertory, is the most systematic yet to appear.




The correct sense of Basso--the bass part-is clearly exemplified inorchestral music. In symphonies, concerti, and operas, where we knowthat the bass part was performed by celli, double-basses, and (often)bassoons, the part bears the simple title Basso or Bassi. Before the middle

1780'S, for example, Haydn almost invariably wrote Basso (rarely Bassi),as in the autographs of the symphonies Hob. I:28,31,35,40,49,55,56,83,85,89 and the overtures Ia:7 and 16.110 Haydn indicated particular in-struments only to specify deviations from this normal scoring, as in "LeMidi" (Hob. 1:7), where one staff is titled Violoncello Obligato, with anadditional indication Fagott; and another staff Basso Continuo, with anadditional remark Violoncello con Basso continuo. Beginning apparently

with Hob. 1:61 (1776), but routinely only after 1788, the celli and double-basses received separate staves and the indication Violoncello (or Violon-celli) and Contrabassi (or, less frequently, Bassi): Hob. 1:90,94,96,99,

o102,o104; ob. Ia: 14 and the overture to La Fedelti Premiata.11"The latter indications naturally reflect the increasing independence of

the celli in Haydn's later orchestral texture. In a terminological sense,however, they represent a change from designation of the bass part[Basso] to specification of the bass instruments. Another indication thatBasso named the part, and not the double-basses [alone], is provided byworks whose title pages give only Basso, but in whose course a solo celloor double-bass, the celli alone, or one or two bassoons appear as separateparts. In such cases these instruments, playing throughout, comprisedpart of the Basso all along. Examples include the symphonies Hob. I:31,finale; I:42/IV, m.2 I; I:45, finale (the "Farewell" section).112

Haydn documented the practice beyond possibility of misinterpreta-tion in his well-known letter of 1768 containing instructions for the

performance of the cantata Applausus (Hob. XXIVa:6):

10t"ens [:] In der Sopran Aria kan allenfahls der Fagot ausbleiben, edochware es mir lieber, wan selber zugegen wire, zu mahlen der Bass durchausobligat, und [ich] schitze jene Music mit denen 3 Bassen, als Violoncello,Fagot und Violon hoher, als 6 Violon mit 3 Violoncello, weil sich gewissePassagen hart distinguiren.Of course, the autograph to Applausus merely gives Basso.113 This term

nOFacsimiles of autographs: Landon, Symphonies (cf. p. ix); JHW, I/4,6,7,12,frontispieces; Landon's miniature-score edition (Vienna, 1964-68), Vols. III, X,frontispieces.

"'Landon, Symphonies, facing p. 241; JHW, I/17,48; XXV/o',12z.112See Sonja Gerlach, "Die chronologische Ordnung von Haydns Sinfonien

zwischen 1774 und 1782," Haydn-Studien, II (1969-70), 49; Landon, Symphonies,pp. 117-18; JHW, 1/4 and Kritischer Bericht, pp. 12z-13; 1/6 and KB, pp. 35-37.

113Haydn Briefe, p. 60: "io. In the soprano aria, the bassoon can be omitted, ifnecessary; but I would prefer it to be included, especially since the bass is obbligatothroughout. I prefer just three players on the bass-one cello, one bassoon, and onedouble-bass-to six double-basses and three celli, because many passages cannot beheard clearly [in the latter scoring]." Landon, The Collected Correspondence andLondon Notebooks of Joseph Haydn (London, 1959), p. ii, translates he last clause"because certain passages stand out better that way"; i.e., he makes it refer to the




and the expression "der Bass" in Haydn's letter therefore designate the

part; Haydn's continuation distinguishes between two possible scoringsof the part. The expression "[3] Bassen" has the same sense as the pluralBassi in the autographs: it does not mean "more than one double-bass,"but "[all the] bass instruments" or, in this case, "[all the] bass players,"however many they may be and however they divide various bass instru-ments among them.114 Finally, the customary names for the double-basswere Violone and Contrabasso;115 his too excludes the use of Basso to

designate the double-bass.Mozart used Basso in the same manner not only in Salzburg but in the

Viennese works of the 178o's, for example in the Andante con moto of

the late Eb Symphony K. 543: the part, labeled Bassi in the margin,separates in measure 3 into Violoncelli and [tacet]; but when the double-basses reenter, the part is labeled Tutti. The alternation between Violon-celli and Bassi Tutti in the C-Minor Concerto K. 491 is, perhaps, evenmore "tangible." Mozart never abandoned this usage: in Die Zauberflote,the alternation between Bassi and Violoncelli at the beginning of thescene for the two men in armor has precisely the same significance.116Before 1780 other Viennese composers, including Wagenseil and Vanhal,titled their orchestral parts Basso.117 Mozart's and (to a lesser extent)Haydn's use of the plural to designate specific instrumental parts inorchestral music provides additional indirect evidence for the soloistic

scoring of chamber music. Works of the latter type name specific in-struments only in the singular, and their titles occasionally speak explicityof the number of instruments rather than, as customary, merely thenumber of parts (e.g., Divertimento a quattro, which leaves the question

former (preferable) scoring. The autograph o Applausus s given in JHW, XXVII/2,frontispiece.

114 Cf. the analogous usage in Johann Samuel Petri, Anleitung zur praktischenMusik, 2d ed. (Bautzen, 1782), p. i68: "Die Bisse sind die Violoncelli, der Violon[double bass], die Fagotti, und das Klavessin

...."

115E.g., Haydn's lost concerto "per il Violone" or "Contra Violone" (EK, p. i9;Larsen, Die Haydn-Uberlieferung, p. 233; Hob. VIIc: i); the double-bass solos in thesymphonies (Hob. I:6-8, trios; Hob. I:31,72, variation finales). Cf. Leopold Mozart'sVersuch einer griindlichen Violinschule, 3d ed. (Augsburg, 1787; facsimile, Leipzig,1956), p. 3: "Der grosse Bass, (il contra Basso) der auch gemeiniglich der Violongennenet wird

..." (The wording in the first edition [1756] is similar.) The same

usage appears n Albrechtsberger's Griindliche Anweisung zur Composition (Leipzig,1790), p. 421: "Der Violon, oder Cantrabass" (sic). Cf. Planyavsky, Kontrabass;

Meier, Kontrabass n der Klassik.116 See the facsimiles in NMA, IV/ii/3, p. [xv] and IV/ii/4, pp. xvii, xviii; alsothe complete facsimile to the "Jupiter" symphony (Vienna, 1923); and cf. NMA,IV/ii/9, Kritischer Bericht, pp. 6, ii, 14, 15, 24, 32, 47, 53, 58. For the Andante toK. 543, see the facsimile in NMA, IV/ii/9, p. xiii; for K. 491, see NMA, IV/I5/7,pp. 89-90; for Die Zauberfl6te, see the facsimile in NMA, II/5/19, p. xxvi (and cf. thesomewhat misleading "interpretation" n the score, p. 287).

117 See John Kucaba, "The Symphonies of . . . Wagenseil" (Ph.D. diss., BostonUniversity, 1967), I, 89-92; Paul R. Bryan, "The Symphonies of . . . Vanhal"(Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Michigan, 1956), I, 174 and fn. i.




of soloistic or orchestral scoring open). Examples of instrumental namesin the singular include several works each by Albrechtsberger, Ditters-dorf, and Gassmann and single works or Opera by Birck, Holzbauer,Richter, Vanhal, and Wagenseil.118

Now if, in orchestral music, Basso meant "the bass part" and had no

power to denote specific instruments, then logically it should have hadthe same significance in chamber music."9 It also had it in fact. The

overwhelming majority of manuscripts transmitting Viennese and Aus-trian chamber music from 1750 to 178o use Basso alone to designate thebass. Among accessible examples one may cite three- and four-partDivertimenti by Porsile, M. G. Monn and J. C. Mann, Aspelmayr, Gass-

mann, Albrechtsberger, Schl6ger, Holzbauer, Dittersdorf, and Starzer.120Albrechtsberger even used Basso in Trios, Quartets, and Quintets fromthe 1780's and after.121 In Joseph Haydn's chamber music before 1780,Basso is far commoner than all specific instrumental designations com-bined. It appears in every authentic source for the early string quartetsfrom "Op. I" and "Op. 2," the early ensemble divertimenti, the stringtrios, and the baryton trios. It persists in the authentic sources for Op. 9

118sAlbrechtsberger: "Violone" (Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," , Nos.19,24); "a tre stromenti" (II, Nos. 60-62). Dittersdorf: "a Tre Stromenti

..Violoncello" (Krebs, Dittersdorfiana, No. 13 ); "Violone" (Krebs 219); "Sonata dacamera a 5 stromenti . . ." and "Quartetto . . . Violino Imo concertante .

. .Viola concertante . . . Violoncello concertante" (Rigler, "Dittersdorf," pp. 186-87).Gassmann: 6 "Duetti a Violino e Violoncello" (Newman, Classic Sonata, p. 355);"Violone" in an oboe trio (Planyavsky, Kontrabass, p. 138); numerous oboe quartets,e.g., "Divertimento a Oboa Sola, Violino Solo, Viola e Violoncello" (Meyer, Gass-mann, pp. 157-58, No. 26; Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, pp. 34-35, No. 31). Birck:

"..Violino Imo

...2o

... obligato, Violoncello" (Kirkendale, p. 3'). Holzbauer:"Partita ... Contra Basso .. ." (Das Erbe deutscher Musik, Vol. XXIV, p. 113, No. 6;Meier, Kontrabass in der Klassik, p. o and fn. 2; Planyavsky, p. 133). Richter:"Violoncello" (as in fn. 67). Vanhal: "Violone" (Eitner, X, 175; quoted byPlanyavsky, p. s151 and fn. 39). Wagenseil: "Suite . . . pour 3 Violoncelli e Con-trabasso" !) (Scholz-Michelitsch, Kammermusik Wagenseils, No. 445).119On the bass in mid-18th-century chamber music generally, see Lehmann,Wesen des Streichquartetts, pp. 47-73; Oberd6rffer, Generalbass, pp. 1-6; Rowen,Early Chamber Music, pp. 73-90; Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. 134-50;Unverricht, Streichtrio, pp. 178-97.

120 Porsile: Henrotte, Divertimento, p. 57. Monn: DTO, XIX/2 (39), catalogue,Nos. 18-23, 26, 29, 30; Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, pp. 29-31. Mann: DTO, Nos.80-89. Aspelmayr: Henrotte, pp. 58, 3951, 368, 379. Gassmann: Meyer, Gassmann,pp. 146-56, Nos. 1-3, 8-23 (Nos. 14-23 equivalent to Kirkendale, pp. 33-35,

Nos. II,

19-21, 38, 13, o10, 9, 16, 14, respectively; cf. also his Nos. 3, 7,18

in "MS 8").

Albrechtsberger: Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," , Nos. 20-23; II, 41-44,51. Schl6ger: DTO, XV/2 (30), pp. xxii, 121. Holzbauer: Das Erbe deutscher Musik,Vol. XXIV, pp. 113, Nos. 3-5 (string quintet versions); 114, Nos. I, 6. Dittersdorf:Krebs, Dittersdorfiana, Nos. 130, 132, 134, 139 and the Sonata cited in fn. 118. Starzer:DTO, XV/2 (31), p. xxiv (two trios and two quartets).121Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," , Nos. 17; 28-30 (from "Op. 7,"

composed in 1787, printed in Pressburg by Schauff, 1792; cf. Kirkendale, Fuge undFugato, p. 89, fn. 33 and DTO, XVI/2 (33), p. 122); Nos. 32-36,38 ("Op. 20," com-posed 18oo, printed by Artaria, 180oi; cf. Kirkendale, pp. 42-43); II, Nos. 45-50("Op. 4"); 51.




and the autographs to Opp. 17 and 20, and although the authentic manu-

script for Op. 33 gives Violoncello, the Artaria print still reads Basso.122For the repertory as a whole, moreover, the titles, genres, chronology,and (insofar as can be determined) style of the works whose sources readBasso differ hardly at all from those (as in fn. I18) which transmit specificinstrumental names in the singular. Here too, then, no grounds exist for

challenging the hypothesis that Basso was compatible with soloistic

performance.Sources which bring Basso into direct juxtaposition with instrumental

names offer further evidence of the compatibility of Basso with soloistic

scoring for cello (or double-bass). At least once each in the autographs

to Op. 17 (1771) and Op. 20o (1772), having at first designated the basspart Basso Haydn later added or substituted the designation Violoncello.In the latter year, Mozart did the same in the first quartet in the set K.

I55-60. In both K. I55-60 and Op. 20, moreover, certain works bear thetitle Basso alone, and still others call solely for Violoncello. A similar

conjunction occurs on Mozart's draft for the fugal finale of the D-minor

quartet K. 173 (i773; composed in Vienna); the title gives Violoncello,but the instrumental designation in front of the first system is Basso.123The only reasonable conclusion is that both composers wrote Basso "byhabit" and that their subsequent addition or substitution of Violoncellowas "by way of explanation" or a "specification."124 Haydn and Mozartwere thinking: "Bass [part . . . but this is a string quartet, so I'd bettername the instrument: ] Violoncello." And Burney's locution "[with]M. Weigel, an excellent performer on the Violoncello, [playing] thebase [sic]" demonstrates conclusively the performance of "bass" parts bysolo cello-in this very repertory.125

These quartets by Haydn and Mozart from the early 1770's are not

the only works to juxtapose Basso and instrumental names in this way;we find others, in various scorings, from 1750 to I8oo. Holzbauer docu-ments both instruments: a Divertimento a 3 reads Basso on the title pagebut gives Contra Basso as the instrumental designation; a lost quartetjuxtaposed Violoncello with Basso. From the 1760's, we find Violone

122 For the quartets, see JHW, XII/i, p. viii; XII/2, p. vi; XII/3 (to appear '974);and below. See also the Kritische Berichte to the baryton-music volumes: XIV/2,pp. 4, 43; XIV/3, pp. 7-8, 18; XIV/4, p. 7; XIV/5, pp. 8-I1; and XIII, p. 12, SourcesE,P; p. i3, Sources A (i),E; p. 14, Source S; etc. For the ensemble divertimenti this

statement is based on original research for JHW, VIII, in preparation; but thenumerous works already published in the series Diletto musicale offer sufficient proof.123 See JHW, XII/2, frontispiece and p. vi; Hoboken, pp. 389-90o;NMA, VIII/20/I/I, pp. vii, xv, xviii.

124JHW, XII/2, p. vi (Feder); NMA, VIII/2o/i/I, pp. vii-viii and n. 6(Wolfgang Plath and Karl-Heinz Fiissl).

125 p. 234 above. These "peculiar" appearances of Basso now excite frequent com-ment (e.g., Somfai, "Zur Echtheitsfrage des Haydn'schen 'Opus 3,'" Haydn-Yearbook,III [1965], 159 and fnn. 21-22), but only Bir's interpretation, in "Basso," s whollypersuasive.



VIENNESE HAMBER USIC N THE CLASSICAL ERIOD 241I

paired with Basso for J. C. Mann; Violoncello in one of a set of fourGassmann oboe quartets, the others of which read Basso. A DittersdorfSerenade with two horns from the early 1770's places the title of the workon the bass part only (a common practice in these sources); although thescribe titled the part itself Violone, in the general title he wrote Basso.126One set of Albrechtsberger trios from the 1770's specifies Violone for thethird work only, the first two reading Basso; a later set from around

1790 calls for Basso on three of the six individual title pages, although the

general title page reads Violoncello; and in his "Op. 20" quartets of 18oo,consisting of three pairs of works each for a different scoring, one pairis for two violins, viola, and Basso; another is for violin, two violas, and

Basso; while the third calls for violin, viola, cello, and Basso [hence:double bass?]. (The latter disposition also turns up in a Gassmann oboe

quartet.127)Two attractive examples stem from Mozart's "Haydn" quartets. In

a letter to Sieber dated April 26, 1783, after offering the three pianoconcerti K. 413-15, Mozart continues: "weiters schreibe ich nun an 6

quartetten auf 2 violin, viola und Basso...

." But a message to his copyistscrawled on Mozart's autograph of K. 387 reveals Basso as "the bass part"far more intimately: "izt wird nur von diesem Andante das 2te Violinund die Viola herausgeschrieben [.] die Bass stilie kof~t erst nachTisch. . . ." Yet, as we know and as Mozart's consistent autograph in-

scriptions Violoncello prove, this "bass part" is played by a cello.128Like the orchestral autographs, the sources for the chamber music

incorporate a temporal progression from the neutral part-designationBasso to the naming of specific instruments. The autograph to the horntrio Hob. IV:5 (1767) is the earliest source in which Haydn specifiedthe cello; the next is Op. 17.129 More and more often in the 1770's, and

126 Holzbauer: Das Erbe deutscher Musik, Vol. XXIV, p. 114, No. 5 (cf. Meier,Kontrabass n der Klassik, p. 50, and Planyavsky, Kontrabass, p. i33); p. 113, No. 7.Mann: DTO, XIX/2, catalogue, No. o90;Meier, p. 49; Newman, Classic Sonata, p. 355(for the date). Gassmann: Meyer, Gassmamn, p. 159-61, Nos. 28-31 (No. 29 specifiesthe cello; these works are the same as Kirkendale, pp. 34-35, Nos. 35, 36, 34, 33).Dittersdorf: Krebs, Dittersdorfiana, No. 128; DTO, XLIII/2 (81), pp. 62-63.

127Albrechtsberger: Somfai, "Albrechtsberger-Eigenschriften," I, Nos. 60-62 and52-57, respectively, for the trios; for the quartets, I, Nos. 32-36,38; the scoring istaken from Artaria's print, quoted in Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, pp. 42-43.Gassmann: Meyer, Gassmann, p. i6i, No. 32 (also Kirkendale, pp. 34-35, No. 37)-

128sMozart Briefe, III, 266: "in addition, I'm now working on six quartets for twoviolins, viola, and bass...

" The autograph to K. 387 is included in the set recentlypublished in facsimile (New York, 1969); here, fol. 6v: "For the time being, copyonly the second violin and viola from this Andante; the bass part can wait [or: won'tbe ready; or: won't arrive] until after dinner

..."

129 Hob. II:24 is undated. Caution is necessary in interpreting EK; the referencesto the cello for the string trios Hob. V: I,21, for example, originated around i8oo(Unverricht, Streichtrio, p. 186). Hoboken also must be read critically. For the horntrio, I am indebted to Dr. Feder for this information. Of course, earlier works specifythe cello in nonauthentic sources.




then routinely in the 1780's, Haydn used Violoncello in all genres.130Indeed by i8oo this older sense of Basso had become antiquated, if notobsolete; only the conservative Albrechtsberger continued to use it with

any frequency. Even here one can document the transition: in the late1780's both Haydn and Mozart occasionally "caught" themselves "in theact" of writing Basso, before substituting Violoncello. Haydn did so, for

example, in the autograph of the string quartet Op. 42 (1785) and in asketch for one of the lyre Notturni for the King of Naples (1790);Mozart in his last completed chamber work, the string quintet K. 614.-131

With these examples, the central hypotheses of this section stand as

proved facts: Basso meant "the bass part" in all scorings, soloistic and

orchestral; it was entirely compatible with performance by solo cello(as well as solo double-bass); and it was used routinely in Austrianchamber music before 178o and occasionally thereafter.

Before turning to the continuo, we should note that every work

transmitting Basso was written for some particular scoring of the bass

part: solo cello, solo double-bass, or both, as Mozart has documented forus on the autograph to Eine kleine Nachtmusik: . . . Violoncello e Con-trabasso (thus probably soloistic in spite of the plural Bassi in Mozart'sthematic catalogue).132 Hence the question of the scoring of the bass partin soloistic chamber music remains a live issue. In any case, the nameBassetl (Bassette, Bassetto, Bassl) was not at all equivalent to Basso,whether in the latter's incorrect sense of [small] "double-bass" or itscorrect one of "the bass part." Bassetl was quite simply a synonym forVioloncello.xa 33When specific instruments are not named, the correct

interpretation of a bass part marked Basso can be determined only by"outside" historical or stylistic evidence.134

130

E.g., the baryton Divertimenti a 8 Hob. X:1-6,I2 (1775; cf. JHW, XIII); thelost baryton-cello Sonatas Hob. XII:7-I2 (ca. i775; ibid.); all the string quartets fromOp. 33 on; the piano trios Hob. XV:6-8 and XV:9 (1784-85; cf. Artaria's edition ofthe former and the authentic parts to the latter, both quoted in Hoboken).

131 See JHW, XII/4 (in preparation); JHW, VII, Kritischer Bericht, Sources (ia)and (3a); NMA, VIII/i9/2 (sic), p. viii. (Even the completed authentic sources forHaydn's lyre Notturni give now Basso, now Violoncello.)

132 Facsimile: NMA, IV/i12/6, p. xviii; Mozart's Verzeichniiss. On the double-bass,cf. pp. 238-41.

133 L. Mozart, Violinscbule, p. 3: "das Bassel oder Bassette, welches man, nachdem italiiinischen Violoncello, das Violonzell nennet"; Albrechtsberger, GriindlicheAnweisung,

p.421: "Das

Bassetgen(Violoncello)." Cf. Klaus

Marx,Die

Entwicklungdes Violoncells und seiner Spieltechnik bis 1. L. Duport (1520-z82o) (Regensburg,1963), pp. [63-64], 66-67, 72. Statements such as those in MGG, Vol. VII, cols. 1519,1521 (Mozart alleged to describe a four-string double-bass tuned C-G-D-A; "Bassi"to denote a short-necked double-bass); or NMA, IV/z12/6, p. ix, fn. 13 (similarly)must be altered accordingly.134Given the widespread use of both cello and double-bass, this problem onlymarginally affects the identity of the genres described above. The topics noted hererequire separate treatment elsewhere; see Webster, "The Bass Part," Chaps. 3-4, 6-7.




Keyboard Continuo?

Despite the copious literature on the "decline" of the continuo in the

18th century, the particulars affecting individual composers, regions,periods, genres, or scorings often remain unclarified.135 Nevertheless, theevidence that the continuo had been abandoned in secular Austrian cham-ber music by 1750 is overwhelming.136 The sources are almost unanimousin their avoidance of the titles Cembalo and Continuo and their absenceof figuration. No authentic source for Haydn's soloistic chamber musiccalls for keyboard or supplies figures. Of the sources for "Op. i" and

"Op. 2," for example, exactly one, a peripheral source now in the monas-

tery at Stams (Tyrol) calls for a keyboard instrument.131 The localsources for Wagenseil, Gassmann, Holzbauer, and Dittersdorf do notspecify the keyboard, and (always excepting church sonatas) hardly anygive figures.138 The history of the musical organizations themselves sup-ports this position; the Vienna Hofkapelle, for example, maintained nocembalo player on its rolls after i763.139

In the light of this consistent testimony of the sources, we cannot

accept the familiar assertion that a continuo might have been used evenwhen no figures are provided and no keyboard part specified.140 The

same skepticism must greet the argument that such stylistic features as aregistral "gap" between the bass and the other parts, "thin" harmony,and the like imply a continuo as "filler": since the sources consistentlyimply the opposite of what our stylistic preconceptions lead us to expect,it is the latter which must be revised. Arguments based on foreign prac-tice also carry little weight: for example, Abb6 Vogler's description ofthe improper use of a keyboard instrument in Italy, in a repertory whosesources do not give figures, still tells us little about unfigured Austrian

135 General discussions include Lehmann, Wesen des Streichquartetts, pp. 47-57;Oberdorffer, Generalbass; Rowen, Early Chamber Music, pp. 48-55, 124-37; Finscher,Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. 134-50; Unverricht, Streichtrio, pp. 187-98.

13 This position is stated in Hugo Rothweiler, Zur Entwicklung des Streich-quartetts im Rahmen der Kammermusik des z8. Jahrhunderts (Tibingen, 1934), p. 46;Robert Haas, Auffuhrungspraxis alter Musik (Potsdam, 1934), p. 241. The best recentdiscussion focusing on Vienna is Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, pp. 91, 93-95.

137 JHW, XII/i, Kritischer Bericht, Source (45); we ignore here the arrangementof the melodic parts for keyboard in a Melk MS (ibid., source [18]).

138sRigler, "Dittersdorf," p. 207; Meyer, Gassmann, pp. 43-44; Lehmann in DasErbe

deutscher Musik,Vol.

XXIV, p. vi;Luithlen in

DTO, XLIII/2 (8i), p.62.

139 Kirkendale, Fuge und Fugato, p. 92.140As in Oberd6rffer, Generalbass, pp. 15-I6; Rowen, Early Chamber Music,

pp. 136-37. Even in Kirkendale's otherwise excellent account (Fuge und Fugato,P. 93), we read: "it goes without saying that the absence of figures from the basspart is no evidence for the omission of the continuo." What, then, is the absence offigures evidence "for"? What would be evidence "for" omission of the continuo, ifthis is not? In fact, even in Austrian nonvocal orchestral music the role of the con-tinuo badly needs re-examination; his must be postponed for another occasion.




sources.141 Almost all the figured sources for post-1750 Austrian chamberworks are foreign, without direct connection with the original milieu.Hummel's prints of Haydn quartets are only the best-known examples of

supplying figures for works which did not originally have them.142 Thispractice was a North and West European tradition exclusively, under-taken by publishers there to satisfy the demand for works in this scoring;but even these indications clearly were to be observed ad libitum.143 Suchalterations provide an analogy to the terminological changes describedabove: here, it is characteristic features of Austrian bass scorings whichhave been brought into false conformity with the taste and practice ofother regions.

Documentary and anecdotal evidence supports this position. The de-scriptions of "quartet parties," cited above, exclude the continuo player inworks a' 4 as early as the 175o's. Furthermore, theoretical and journalisticaccounts document the rapidly growing perception that a keyboardcontinuo destroyed the balance among the parts. Thus Daube's Dermusikalische Dilettante, of special interest here because of its origin inVienna between 1770 and 1773, several times refers specifically to per-formance by soloists:

. . Die Wirkung der Harmonic ist vielfach ... [die] Wirkung ist gut aufder Orgel, dem Fliigel, oder Klavier: allein noch besser, wenn er durch zwoViolinen und einen Violoncell vorgetragen wird . . . Diese ist wiederumveriindert, . . wenn seine erste Umwendung geh6ret wird: und das Violoncelldriicket das im Bass stehende E recht vernehmlich aus, insonderheit, wenn erdurch ein Forzando ins F hinein geschleift wird [an example gives a simplethree-part 16-IV n C major] ....

Hierbey ist zu erinnern, dass der Bass durch ein Violoncell vorgetragenwerde, damit die drey Stimmen durchgehende eine Gleichheit in Ansehungder kurzen melodischen Glieder iiberkommen: welche Gleichheit auf dem

Fliigel nicht zu erhalten ist. Bogenstriche, Schleifungen, und ein sogennantesForzando sc. lassen sich am besten durch ein Violoncell ausdriicken.144

141 The contrary is asserted in Unverricht, Streichtrio, pp. 194-95. (Vogler isquoted directly below.)

142 Hummel's prints of Opp. I, 2, and 9 (as "Op. 7") have figured bass; likewiseBremner's and Longman & Lukey's reprints of these, Sieber's Op. 17 (as "Op. 9"),and even Kerpen's Op. 33. Numerous others are cited in Finscher, Das klassischeStreichquartett, pp. 146-47. Cf. Feder, "Die Eingriffe des Musikverlegers Hummel inHaydns Werken," Musicae Scientiae Collectanea. Festschrift Karl Gustav Fellerer[zum 70. Geburtstag] (forthcoming), pp. 88-ioi.

143 Cf. Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. i39-4i; Unverricht, Streichtrio,pp. i9i-96.

144 Johann Friedrich Daube, Der musikalische Dilettante . .., III (Vienna, '773),4, 89: ". . . the effect of a [three-part] chord varies according to the position and thescoring, . . . but it is even better when played by two violins and a cello

...Similarly, the effect varies if the first inversion is played and the cello sounds quitegood indeed playing E [I] in the bass, especially if it emphasizes its progression to F[IV] by a Forzando....

"..It should be remembered that the bass [in this example] is played by a cello,

so that the three melodic parts remain in balance [as they exchange] the short




Around 1780, Vogler documents the same aesthetic from the point ofview of a South German encountering a different practice elsewhere:

In Italien wird in manchen Privat-Concerten vom Begleiten des Claviersein Missbrauch gemacht. Sehr oft bedienen sic sich einer unbiegsamen Fliigelszu einem Quartett, statt des Violonzell. Dieser ist alle Augenblicke unver-hiltnismissig, und beim forte zu leis, beim piano zu stark. Ein Violin- oderF1iten-Solo klingt sehr gut, wenn nebst dem Violonzell eine gemisigteBegleitung von einem Fortepiano beitritt. Aber in einem Quartett von 4Bogeninstrumenten ist sie unniiz, ja schidlich ... 145

And Petri in 1782:

A) Beim Trio,

a) wo zwo Floten sind, dieselben zum Basse lieber einen sanft geblasenenFagott haben wollen ....

b) Wo zwo Geigen sind, das Violoncello allein den Bass machen miisse,und mit dem Violon nicht verwechselt werden solle. Denn der Violonist zum Trio zu tief und zu stark ....

d) Das Klavessin fillt beim Trio ganz weg, und wiirde sein Akkom-pagnement der Absicht des Trios ganz zuwider seyn ....

B) Das Quartett oder Quadro soll mit vier Meistern oder Virtuosen besetztseyn, deren jeder seine Stimme vollkommen gut an sich selbst, und innachahmenden Passagen vollkommen seinem Vorginger ihnlich vor-trigt. Es leidet auch kein Klavierakkompagnement und keinen doppeltenBass, der Violon muss weg, und das Violoncello allein ist dabey genung,wenn bloss zwo Geigen und eine Bratsche dabey sind. Deswegen ebenbaut man jetzt die Bassgeigen oder Violoncelli etwas weiter und grosser,dass ihr Ton fiillender seyn soll.14'6

(Petri's first edition [1767 ], incidentally, cites no bass scorings other thanthe continuo.147) Daube's recipes for amateurs of the early 1770's and the

melodic phrases. It would be impossible to maintain this balance with a keyboard;legatos, ornaments, the so-called Forzando, etc., can be expressed far better on a cello.

145Betrachtungen der Mannheimer Tonschule, II (Mannheim, 1779-80), 295:"In Italy, one hears the keyboard misused in many private concerts: in quartets,instead of using a cello [for the bass part] they use the inflexible harpsichord, whichis always out of balance, too soft in forte passages and too loud in piano. ... A violinor flute solo sounds perfectly well when a Fortepiano discreetly accompanies thecello, but in a quartet for four stringed instruments, [the piano] is not only uselessbut actually affects the ensemble for the worse."

146 Anleitung, p. 185: "In the Trio with two flutes the bass should be a delicatelyplayed bassoon . . If one has two violins, a solo cello is the only satisfactory bass; adouble-bass may not substitute for it, because it is too low and too strong for a

trio. . . . The keyboard must be dispensed with entirely; its presence would beentirely at odds with the intent of a trio...."The Quartet should be played by four professionals or virtuosos, each of whom

can perform his part consummately both in normal texture and in imitation. It admitsneither keyboard accompaniment nor doubling of the bass; the double-bass has noplace in it, and a solo cello is a satisfactory bass to two solo violins and a viola. Forthat reason, celli (or bass violins) are built somewhat broader and larger these days,to give them a fuller tone."

147 Finscher, Das klassische Streichquartett, pp. 137-39 (here, p. 138) has alreadyquoted and interpreted the passages given here.




more "legitimate" German descriptions around 1780 testify to the wide

acceptance of string-quartet scoring by those dates. One may speculatethat, because of the usual time-lag of ten or twenty years, this scoringhad become common ca. 1750-70. This result agrees precisely with theanecdotal and historical evidence given above.

In every respect, therefore, the evidence strongly implies that a key-board continuo was not used in Viennese secular ensemble music after

1750 (if, indeed, it had ever been much of a factor). It would now seemincumbent on those who would still plead for the continuo to producepositive evidence in favor of its use.

Conclusions

In Viennese ensemble music from 1750 to 178o, Divertimento was thetitle of preference for every nonorchestral scoring. Before ca. 1760, thetitle Partita also served the same function. The alternate titles Cassatio,Notturno, Serenade, and Concertino designated "light" music in various

scorings from 1750 on. The titles Quartet and Quintet occurred infre-

quently before ca. 1770 and supplanted Divertimento as customary desig-nations for "serious" chamber music only after 178o. This developmentwas intimately tied up with a change from private to public musical cul-

ture and the rise of native publishing firms around 178o. Each of the fiveprincipal genres of Viennese chamber music in this period-the sonata formelodies and bass; the Classical string trio, quartet, and quintet; the Classi-cal scorings with an obbligato wind instrument; the cassation for mixedensemble with two horns; and the partita for winds-is transmitted underthe title Divertimento as well as more specialized ones. Thus Divertimentodid not designate a genre at all; it was a general title for nonorchestralinstrumental music, analogous to the modern "Composition."

In Viennese music,the restricted sense

of"divertimento"

familiarto

us-"light" or "occasional" music, usually not intended for publication,deviating from [newly established] norms of "Classical" scorings, three-and four-movement cyclic patterns, and "serious" style-was a viable

concept only after 178o. Earlier works titled Divertimento did not neces-

sarily conform to this modern concept; nor were they necessarily "de-rived" from the suite; nor did they necessarily comprise part of the "pre-history" of later "Classical" genres. In particular, most Divertimenti aquattro from the period 175o-8o were string quartets in everything but

name.The choice between soloistic and orchestral performance of ensemble

music ad libitum was not as important in Austria as elsewhere in Europe.The clear differentiation of secular ensemble music both from the churchsonata and from "serious" orchestral music, reinforced by historical andanecdotal evidence, strongly implies that the title Divertimento trans-mitted soloistic music. The term Basso appeared universally in both or-




chestral and soloistic music; it meant simply "the bass part." As such, itwas perfectly compatible both with soloistic scoring in a general senseand with every particular instrumentation of the bass. Hence Basso im-

plied neither orchestral (as opposed to soloistic) performance of the bass,nor the use of keyboard continuo (as opposed to string bass[es ] alone).Most important, Basso routinely appeared even when the bass was a solocello. There is little evidence for a keyboard continuo in this repertory.

In every facet of this repertory, the period 1750 to 1780 witnessed a

development from general titles, terms, and concepts to specific ones. Thetitles of compositions changed from Partita and Divertimento to the spe-cific Sonata (in the modern sense), Quartet, and so forth (and, as a side

effect, Partita and Divertimento acquired new, specialized meanings).Ad libitum scorings became rarer as obbligato part-writing increased, mostobviously in the piano trio and quartet. Indeed, each scoring becamealmost a genre to itself: rather than merely modifying, as in DivertimentoS3 and a 4, the number of parts became the substantive title: Trio,Quartet, Quintet. Both spatially in the sources, and in the music itself,the orchestral Bassi split into three or more separate entities: celli, double-basses, and bassoons. And the name of the part changed from the neutralBasso to numerous precise instrumental designations. Basso, used univer-

sally in 1750 for all scorings, was obsolete in this sense by I8oo.These developments reflect more fundamental aspects of the change

from Baroque to Classical style. Hand in hand with increasingly preciseterminological usage, composers wrote increasingly numerous and precisedynamic and expressive indications in their scores and composed thesevalues into the music itself. Likewise, their more precise differentiationswithin previously uniform categories of music mirror the development offluid phrase rhythm and psychologically oriented musical characteriza-

tion, where previously each movement had been dominated by a single"motor rhythm," and "unity of affect" and sharp contrast had been the

principal aesthetic ideals. By the same token, the appearance of Diverti-mento and Basso where we have been trained to expect Quartet andVioloncello-in masterpieces as mature as Haydn's Op. 20-testifies tohow many of our ideas about this repertory are grounded solely in itspost-1780 phase. The results presented here should aid the developmentof a more accurate picture of Austrian chamber music in the earlyClassical period.

Cornell University

Towards a History of Viennese Chamber Music in the Early Classical Period

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